if you want x, you know where to find it.

2 definitions found

if you want x, you know where to find it. - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  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]
  
     (1995-10-25)
  

if you want x, you know where to find it. - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  If you want X, you know where to find it.
  
  
     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 comp.lang.c newsgroup. Indeed,
     the case X = X has been reported in discussions of graphics software
     (see X).