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From: cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: TeX pronounciation
Keywords: How, why?
Message-ID: <29780@bbn.COM>
Date: 18 Sep 88 17:23:21 GMT
References: <374@polyof.UUCP> <3470@phri.UUCP>
Sender: news@bbn.COM
Reply-To: cosell@BBN.COM (Bernie Cosell)
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 28

In article <3470@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
}In article <374@polyof.UUCP> paul@polyof.UUCP (A1 Mr. Curran) writes:
}> 	How does one pronounce the term "TeX."
}
}	The official line is something along these lines.  The spelling of
}TeX is not actually Tee-Eee-Eks, but the Greek Tau-Epsilon-Chi and is
}pronounced Tech which sort of rhymes with bleech.  

I know this thread is (thankfully) dead, but let me point out that this
whole folk etymology Knuth goes through, greek letters and other such
nonsense to steer clear of a Honeywell product, is surely a bit suspect
around the edges.  Consider your chances if you decided to call your
little software firm "Irving's Better Modules" and then made your
company logo IbM (that's Iota/Beta/Mu).  I ain't a lawyer, and this
ain't misc.legal, but this has always seemed legally bogus to me (not
to mention cutesy and contrived).  Either Knuth didn't NEED Honeywell's
permission (the name wasn't trademarked, for example), or Honeywell
_gave_ their permission -- in either case the "it's all Greek" shaggy
dog story is extraneous, no?  

[Note that this has nothing to do with the *pronunciation* of "TeX" -- DEK
can try to get people to pronounce it any way he wants... I just wish he
would have spared us the Greek disgression]

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