JargonFile/entries/If you want X, you know where to find it..txt
2014-04-26 16:54:15 +01:00

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If you want X, you know where to find it.
There is a legend that Dennis Ritchie, inventor of C , once responded to
demands for features resembling those of what at the time was a much more
popular language by observing If you want PL/I, you know where to find it.
Ever since, this has been hackish standard form for fending off requests to
alter a new design to mimic some older (and, by implication, inferior and
baroque ) one. The case X = Pascal manifests semi-regularly on Usenet's
comp.lang.c newsgroup. Indeed, the case X = X has been reported in
discussions of graphics software (see X ).