If you want X, you know where to find it.
<exclamation> There is a legend that
Dennis Ritchie, inventor of
C, once responded to demands for features resembling those of what at the time was a much more popular language by observing "If you want
PL/I, you know where to find it."
Ever since, this has been hackish standard form for fending off requests to alter a new design to mimic some older (and, by implication, inferior and
baroque) one.
The case X =
Pascal manifests semi-regularly on
Usenet's news:comp.lang.c {newsgroup}.
Indeed, the case X = X has been reported in discussions of graphics software (see
X Window System).
[
Jargon File]
