How programming languages have warped my writing

• Because of HyperTalk, I am never sure how to spell highlight. I always want to spell it 'hilite'.
• Because of AppleScript, I always want to write 'thru' instead of 'through'.
• Because of Java, I'm inclined to write 'Cristina+Liberty' instead of 'Cristina and Liberty'.
• Because of perl, I assume folks on IM understand '^foo^bar' means 'replace "foo" with "bar" on the previous line'.
• Because of C++, I assume that folks on IM understand '==' means 'I agree with your previous statement'.
• Because of Lisp, I assume (my friends (have no problems (de-nesting parentheses))).
• Because of (ba)sh, I take care in my use of single quotes, double quotes and accent-quotes. Yes, when I write with single quotes, I do really intend for the reader not to expand the string in-place.
• Because of programming in general, my outgoing email is always brace-balanced.

Monday, November 15, 2004
04:48 PM