The stories behind keywords and operators?

Question

Know any good stories that describe how a keyword or an operator got it's name?

For example, why is main() the starting point on so many programs? Or why is the pipe (|) used as an OR operator in some languages? Most are derived from older syntax, but why were these chosen to begin with?

I was just reading about why we use an asterisk in regular expressions to denote zero or more repetitions and wondered about the stories behind other operators and keywords.

Answer 1

There's a simple explanation for most of the things you bring up: because that's the way it is in C. I would imagine that the biggest reason for a lot of these is because C was invented in the day of monochrome 80-char wide screens. Thus, terseness was probably a big factor (hence why we use the curly brace instead of a word like START).

Answer 2

Here is a bit of C prehistory, about its predecessor B where the basic syntax originates.

Answer 3

Yep, C and Unix are the roots of everything :)

On one-character operators: Two other practical reasons that came to my mind (aside of 80x25 char - or even smaller? - screens that Jason mentioned):

• The baud rate of ancient terminals. First Unix boxes were operated through teletype lines and each character in a code could add some waiting time.
• The size of RAM needed to edit (and parse) the code.

C was (unlike FORTRAN or Pascal) intended for writing large programs - IMO that was why these (or simillar) factors were taken into account.

Answer 4

Because they had to choose something. I doubt the stories are interesting. Pipes were probably chosen because whoever made the decision thought they looked better or made more sense than the alternatives.

Answer 5

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I don't know who first named it, but Ruby's comparison operator (above) is often called the 'spaceship' due to its appearance.