OT: Sarcasm and irony (was: Dive Into Java?)

[bryan rasmussen]

> >
> > > E. g. [in Java there is] no operator overloading, but "+"
> > > concatenation of strings. What if you'd like to implement your own
> > > string-derived class? Ah, never mind. Operator overloading is
> > > bad(tm) ;) <= Irony, definitely
> >
> > Definitely? That one strikes me more as sarcasm.
>

Well irony originally started out as a very specific concept of the
Ancient Greek drama, this is what we nowadays refer to as Dramatic
Irony but it is the original irony. Irony then became a literary
concept for plot elements similar to Dramatic irony in books, or a
weaker type of the Dramatic irony found in the plays of Shakespeare.
People then noticed that life was at times ironic in the literary
manner. Nowadays the use of the word irony has degenerated to by
pretty much synonymous with sarcasm.

Cheers,
Bryan Rasmussen