Re: [Pan-users] files for imhotep82 git ef96111 - "patches_for_imhotep82_master_GIT-ef96111.diff" yEnc (1/1) 5073 bytes

[Duncan]

SciFi posted on Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:54:48 +0000 as excerpted:

> I hope we can make Pan the best open free newsreader ever.  :)

I don't remember whether you go far enough back to know this bit of 
trivia, or not, but I'm sure it'll be new for many others here, so...

PAN was originally ALL CAPS, because it was an initialism.  It stood for 
"pimp-ass newsreader".  That has always been its goal, tho it has 
certainly taken its time getting there in the general sense.  Still, it 
has long been arguably the best combination binary/text client available 
for Unix, even if it's still aspiring to reach the heights claimed by its 
name.

Meanwhile, sometime around the introduction of gtk/gnome-2 (and pan 
0.12), "pimp-ass" was deemphasized as undesirable due to the slang.  
Still, thru all the old-pan 0.1x series, I nearly always personally used 
the all caps form, PAN, paying homage to the original name and what I 
still considered to be pan's ultimate target.

Only with the C++ rewrite and public release of pan-0.90 did I take the 
opportunity to change my personal reference to pan as well, and switch to 
all lowercase, since few new what PAN referred to by then anyway, and not 
having to reach for the caps-key made typing it significantly easier.

Just reminding people that there's way more to that "the best open free 
newsreader ever" tradition and ultimate goal, than is apparent at first 
glance, certainly for those many who never intuited the original name, at 
least.

That's quite the aspiration to claim, but it's definitely a very solid 
part of pan's heritage.

(I guess the logical question that stems from that is this:  Do we want 
to reemphasize that aspect of pan, and possibly form a group practice of 
using the all-caps form PAN, as a result?  I imagine I could pickup the 
habit pretty quickly once again, and I'd certainly not mind it, but it's 
more hassle than it's worth if it's just me.  Meanwhile, the about box 
could be modified to declare the original name once again, etc, altho I'm 
not sure what implications that might have for pan's gnome partnership, 
as it very likely violates modern political sensitivities guidelines, 
etc.  The days of bitchx, c-lit, etc, are for better or worse, probably 
over for good.  The gimp's about the last of a dying breed, and it only 
gets away with it because it refused from the beginning to make that 
compromise.)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman