use Perl

• No idea (Score:1)

  by Dom2 (2981)

  But I would guess that it's just where the miscellaneous left over stuff went after /usr, /bin and /dev.

  /etc used to be extremely sparsely populated. About 10 files on a fresh 7th Edition install. Have a look at a pdp11 emulator for more details.

  -Dom
  • Re:No idea (Score:2)

    by darobin (1316)

    I thought about that, but I have trouble buying it. It seems like a very poor choice :) Besides, it's not really miscellanous, there is some form of coherence there... perhaps though I'm getting that impression from having used unices for only five years.

    --
    

    -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]
• The Burke Hypothesis (Score:2)

  by TorgoX (1933)

  Just as "no plan ever survives contact with the enemy", no ontology (whether explicit or not) ever survives actual use without sprouting a de facto Etc/Misc classification.

  I call that the Burke Hypothesis! File it next to the the Burke Conjecture [cmu.edu]. I.e., with the duct tape and the Shoe Glue, in the junk drawer.
  • Re:The Burke Hypothesis (Score:2)

    by darobin (1316)

    Exercise left for the reader: why does CPAN not have a Util::*, Misc::*, or Etc::* top-level namespace?

    --
    

    -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]