5.0883 Qs: Origin of "String"; Academics in PopCulture (2/68)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 4 May 1992 19:10:04 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 5, No. 0883. Monday, 4 May 1992.


(1) Date: Sun, 3 May 92 15:49:54 EDT (54 lines)
From: weinshan@cps.msu.edu
Subject: Origin of "String"?

(2) Date: Mon, 04 May 1992 17:31:10 EDT (14 lines)
From: edm@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Subject: Query: Academics in Pop Culture

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 3 May 92 15:49:54 EDT
From: weinshan@cps.msu.edu
Subject: Origin of "String"?


Can you help me identify the origin of the term "string" as applied to
computing languages?

As used in BASIC and other languages, a "string" is a sequence of text
characters such as letters, digits, other symbols on the keyboard, etc.,
delimited in some way. (In BASIC, a string constant is enclosed in double
quotes.)

I have drawn blanks in standard books on the history of computing. The
1971 OED (p. 3097) quotes an 1891 Century Dictionary on a source in
the Milwaukee Sentinel of 11 Jan. 1898 (section 3, p. 1) to the effect
that this is a compositor's term. Printers would paste up the text that
they had generated in a long strip of characters. (Presumably, they
were paid by the foot, not by the word!) The quote says that it was
not unusual for compositors to create more than 1500 (characters?)
per hour.

If this is, in fact, the origin of the term "string" as applied to computing,
I want to do a Gutenberg minute in a national CS1 telecourse which we are
now taping. Your help --- citations would be better yet --- would be
greatly appreciated.


*********************************************************************
Dr. Don Weinshank weinshan@cpswells.cps.msu.edu
Computer Science Dept. weinshank@msuegr.bitnet
A-732 Wells Hall weinshankdj@clvax1.cl.msu.edu
Michigan State University COMPUSERVE 76154,704
East Lansing MI 48824 USA GEnie XTX90068
Phone (517) 353-0831 FAX (517) 336-1061
*********************************************************************


(2) --------------------------------------------------------------26----
Date: Mon, 04 May 1992 17:31:10 EDT
From: edm@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Subject: Query: Academics in Pop Culture

I'm interested in contemporary popular representations of
academics in the United States. These should be restricted to,
say, college-level professors of humanities as portrayed in mass
media (magazines, television, popular film, etc.).

Please send responses directly to my e-mail address to avoid
cluttering up the list.

Christine Hutchins
EDM@CUNYVMS1.GC.CUNY.EDU