[COFF] Awk, not Kaw?

Adam Thornton athornton at gmail.com
Tue Jul 26 03:36:25 AEST 2022


I mean let's look at this logically.  We only have six possibilities:

AWK: well, it won.  It's easy to pronounce.  It does sound like an extinct
flightless bird, which is helpful in a world in which ORA is going to come
along with its distinctive product line book covers.
AKW: unpronounceable, but probably would have turned into "ak-dub".  Nah.
KWA: I like this one.  But then I'm a fan of Waiting For Godot.
KAW: Well, yeah, the ORA cover would have been a crow.  Just about as good
as AWK, really.
WKA: "wocka wocka" is the noise Pac-man makes.  Unfortunately the program
predated the video game by three years.  Would have been a great ORA cover
though.
WAK: "This language is WAK" would have been excellent marketing.  I'm a
little sorry this one didn't win.

Adam

On Mon, Jul 25, 2022 at 2:49 AM Harald Arnesen <skogtun at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Dan Cross [25/07/2022 02.33]:
>
> > `akw` seems like the most promising alternative, for
> > no other reason than that the initials are alphabetized.
> > `kaw` feels a bit silly, sounding like the noise that a
> > crow makes.
> >
> > I suspect "awk" was the closest to pronounceable
> > without seeming unduly goofy.
>
> Whether a crow cries "kaw" or "awk" is open to discussion...in
> Norwegian, it says "kra".
>
> I have always thought the name was a play on the bird "auk". The Book
> even has a picture of this creature on the cover.
> --
> Hilsen Harald
>
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