[Python-Dev] Re: PEP239 (Rational Numbers) Reference Implementation and new issues

[Eric S. Raymond]

Greg Ewing <greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz>:
> Andrew Koenig <ark@research.att.com>:
> 
> >         A one-l lama is a priest,
> >         A two-l llama is a beast,
> >         But I'll bet you a silk pyjama
> >         There isn't any three-l lllama.
> > 
> >                                 --Ogden Nash
> > 
> > PS: When I first saw this poem, it was accompanied by a claim (in a
> >     footnote) that a three-l lllama is a substantial conflagration.
> 
> :-) !!!
> 
> I have a vision of an obscure corner of Tibet featuring
> an order of special firefighting lamas, ready at a moment's
> notice to jump on their llamas and race off to do battle
> with a lllama...

:-)

By the way, the footnote read as follows:

"The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known
as a three-alarmer. Pooh."
 
> And whenever I see "1/3" now I'm going to want to
> pronouce it "one lama three". What have you done to
> me?

Oh, ghods.  

You realize this is turning into a classic Jargon File entry, don't you?

@hd{lama} @g{n.} [Python] The division operator /; thus 1/3 is pronounced
  "one lama three".  Coined during and October 2002 on the Python-development
  mailing list.  Someone proposed that /, //, and /// should stand for
  integer-, rational-, and float-valued division, and someone else quoted
  Ogden Nash's poem @uref{http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1080.html, 
  The Lama}.  Amidst talk of firefighting llamas in Tibet, the analogy stuck.

Of course, I can't actually add this.  The last three words aren't true.  

Yet.,,
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>