Editing Recursive acronym (section)

==Use in computing==
In [[computing]], an early tradition in the [[Hacker (hobbyist)|hacker]] community, especially at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], was to choose acronyms and abbreviations that referred humorously to themselves or to other abbreviations. Perhaps the earliest example in this context is the [[backronym]] "Mash Until No Good", which was created in 1960 to describe [[Mung (computer term)|Mung]], and revised to "Mung Until No Good". It lived on as a recursive command in the editing language [[Text Editor and Corrector|TECO]].<sup>[[Mung (computer term)|[3]]]</sup> In 1977<ref name="eine">{{citation|title=Electronic message to BUG-LISPM|author=Daniel Weinreb|date=8 August 1977}}</ref> programmer Ted Anderson coined TINT ("TINT Is Not [[Text Editor and Corrector|TECO]]"), an editor for MagicSix. This inspired the two MIT [[Lisp Machine]] editors called [[EINE]] ("EINE Is Not [[Emacs]]", German for ''one'') and [[ZWEI]] ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially", German for ''two''), in turn inspiring Anderson's retort SINE ("SINE is not EINE"). [[Richard Stallman]] followed with [[GNU]] (GNU's Not [[Unix]]).

Recursive acronym examples often include negatives, such as denials that the thing defined is or resembles something else (which the thing defined does in fact resemble or is even derived from), to indicate that, despite the similarities, it was distinct from the program on which it was based.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fsfe.org/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html#the-name-gnu|title=The Free Software Movement and the Future of Freedom: The name "GNU"|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316191530/http://fsfe.org/freesoftware/transcripts/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html#the-name-gnu|archivedate=16 March 2015|author=Richard Stallman|date=March 9, 2006}}</ref>

An earlier example appears in a 1976 textbook on data structures, in which the pseudo-language SPARKS is used to define the algorithms discussed in the text. "SPARKS" is claimed to be a non-acronymic name, but "several cute ideas have been suggested" as expansions of the name. One of the suggestions is the [[tail recursive]] "Smart Programmers Are Required to Know SPARKS".<ref>{{cite book|title=Fundamentals Of Data Structures|author1=Ellis Horowitz|author2=[[Sartaj Sahni]]|publisher=Computer Science Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-914894-20-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kdRQAAAAMAAJ&q=%22sparks%22|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Other examples are the [[YAML]] language, which stands for "YAML ain't markup language" and [[PHP]] language meaning "PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor".

===Examples===
{{Div col|colwidth=40em}}
* [[Allegro library|Allegro]]: Allegro Low LEvel Game ROutines (early versions for Atari ST were called "Atari Low Level Game Routines")
* [[AROS]]: AROS Research Operating System (originally Amiga Research Operating System)
* [[ATI Technologies|ATI]]: ATI Technologies Inc.
* [[Bird Internet routing daemon|BIRD]]: BIRD Internet Routing Daemon
* [[Cave Automatic Virtual Environment|CAVE]]: CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment
* [[cURL]]: Curl URL Request Library<ref>{{cite web |url=http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2015/03/20/curl-17-years-old-today/ |title=curl, 17 years old today |last1=Stenberg |first1=Daniel |date=20 March 2015 |website=daniel.haxx.se |access-date=20 March 2015 |archive-date=6 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151206014340/http://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2015/03/20/curl-17-years-old-today/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Darcs]]: Darcs Advanced Revision Control System
* [[EINE]]: EINE Is Not Emacs
* [[FIJI (software)|FIJI]]: FIJI Is Just [[ImageJ]]
* [[Ginac computer algebra system|GiNaC]]: GiNaC is Not a CAS (Computer Algebra System)
* [[GNE (encyclopedia)]]: GNE's Not Encyclopedia
* [[GNU]]: GNU's Not Unix
* [[GPE Palmtop Environment|GPE]]: GPE Palmtop Environment
* [[gRPC]]: grpc Remote Procedure Calls
* [[JACK Audio Connection Kit|JACK]]: JACK Audio Connection Kit
* [[KGS Go Server|KGS]]: KGS Go Server
* [[LAME]]: LAME Ain't [[MP3]] Encoder<ref name="lame">{{cite web | url = http://lame.sourceforge.net/about.php | title = About LAME | access-date = 2016-02-20 | archive-date = 12 February 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160212163532/http://lame.sourceforge.net/about.php | url-status = live }}</ref>
* [[LiVES]]: LiVES is Video Editing System
* MINDY: MINDY Is Not [[Dylan (programming language)|Dylan]] Yet
* [[MiNT]]: MiNT is Not TOS (later changed to "MiNT is Now TOS")
* [[Freemacs|MINT]]: MINT Is Not [[TRAC (programming language)|TRAC]]
* [[Mung (computer term)|Mung]]: Mung Until No Good<ref name="mung">{{cite web|url= http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/mung.html|title= The Jargon File: Mung|access-date= 2007-10-15|archive-date= 15 June 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150615165058/http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/mung.html|url-status= live}}</ref>
* [[Nagios]]: Nagios Ain't Gonna Insist On Sainthood (a reference to the previous name of Nagios, "Netsaint"; ''agios'' [αγιος] is the Greek word for "saint")
* [[NiL]]: NiL Isn't Liero
* [[Ninja-ide]]: Ninja-IDE Is Not Just Another IDE
* [[PHP]]: PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (from "Personal Home Page Tools", more frequently referenced as "PHP Tools."<ref name="History of PHP">{{cite web|title=History of PHP|url=http://www.php.net/manual/en/history.php.php|publisher=php.net|access-date=18 June 2013|archive-date=2 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130702191556/http://php.net/manual/en/history.php.php|url-status=live}}</ref>)
* [[Pine (e-mail client)|PINE]]: PINE Is Nearly [[Elm (e-mail client)|Elm]], originally; PINE now officially stands for "Pine Internet News E-mail"<ref name="pine-origins">{{ cite web | url = http://www.island-resort.com/pine.htm | title = What Pine Really Stands For | access-date = 2007-03-06 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110607212819/http://www.island-resort.com/pine.htm | archive-date = 2011-06-07 }}</ref>
* [[Pip (Python)|PIP]]: PIP Installs Packages
* [[P.I.P.S.]]: P.I.P.S. Is POSIX Symbian
* [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]]: officially "Portable Network Graphics", but unofficially "PNG's not GIF".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Web Review: PNG's NOT GIF!|url=https://people.apache.org/~jim/NewArchitect/webrevu/1997/05_09/designers/05_09_97_1.html|access-date=2021-11-24|website=people.apache.org|first=Greg|last=Roelofs|archive-date=30 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330031000/https://people.apache.org/~jim/NewArchitect/webrevu/1997/05_09/designers/05_09_97_1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[RPM Package Manager|RPM]]: RPM Package Manager
* [[SPARQL]]: SPARQL Protocol And RDF Query Language
* [[PGF/TikZ|TikZ]]: TikZ ist kein Zeichenprogramm (German; TikZ is not a drawing program)
* [[:fr:TiLP|TiLP]]: TiLP is Linking Program
* [[GNU nano#History|TIP]]: TIP isn't [[Pico (text editor)|Pico]]
* [[TRESOR]]: TRESOR Runs Encryption Securely Outside RAM
* [[UIRA#UIRA|UIRA]]: UIRA Isn't Recursive Acronym
* [[Wine (software)|WINE]]: WINE Is Not Emulator<ref name="wine">{{cite web|url=http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-8b4fbbe473bd0d51d936bcf298f5b7f0e8d25f2e|title=FAQ—The Official Wine Wiki|access-date=2009-01-16|archive-date=24 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224080708/https://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-8b4fbbe473bd0d51d936bcf298f5b7f0e8d25f2e|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=August 2024}}
* [[XAMPP]]: XAMPP Apache MariaDB PHP Perl
* [[XBMC]]: XBMC Media Center (originally Xbox Media Center)
* [[XINU]]: XINU Is Not Unix
* [[Microsoft XNA|XNA]]: XNA's Not Acronym'd
* [[YAML]]: YAML Ain't Markup Language (initially "Yet Another Markup Language")
* [[YARA]]: Yara: Another Recursive Acronym
* [[Zinf]]: Zinf Is Not FreeAmp
* [[ZWEI]]: ZWEI Was EINE Initially ("eine" and "zwei" are German for "one" and "two" respectively)
{{Div col end}}