Pling off!

This is a pling. Most people would know it as an exclamation mark, in fact that's how I prefer to know it.

I've only ever heard one other person in the world call it a "pling" and for that I'll forever hold a grudge against him. His name was Norman Byers and he taught me graphical communication at A-level.

Everytime I see an exclamation mark my brain automatically sings "PLING!" at me, you know kind of like you'd expect an exclamation mark to sound if it made a noise.

I just thought Norman was mad but it turns out he wasn't. Driven to insanity by the constant "plinging" in my mind I decided today to actually check it out. Wikipedia has a definition here. It's not until you get to the bottom you'll actually discover the term "pling". According to Wiki a "pling" is the term used in BBC Basic programming. Yes folks "pling" is official.

This explains a lot as we used Acorns at college and it just so happens that "!" is an executable command for programs with RISC OS. Good old Norm always got his kicks by telling us how to load stuff on the Acorns, "Pling Boot" he'd tell us in his usual unexcitable style.

Norman you've "pling-ed" me enough and I'm sick of it.