On Feb 11, 9:05 pm, Evan Kirshenbaum <
evan.kirshenb...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Yes, of course, silly me!
>
> > This seems to be supported by the OED, which, interestingly, gives
> > the origin - I thought it was from the joker in cards, but it seems
> > that I was wrong, there was an intermediate step between the playing
> > card and the meta-character.
>
> > "
> > wild card, (a) (see sense 15 b above); also fig.; (b) Sport (orig.
> > U.S.), a player or team chosen for a tournament at the discretion of
> > the organizers after the regular places have been taken up; freq.
> > attrib.; (c) Computers, a character that will match any character or
> > combination of characters in a file name, etc.;
> > "
>
> > "
> > b.A.II.15.b Of a playing card: having any rank chosen by the player
> > holding it. Also fig. See also wild card, sense 16 below.
> > "
>
> I don't think that (b) is actually an intermediate step between (a)
> and (c). They're just listing various meanings in the order they
> found them. (c) comes from the "stands for anything" sense of (a),
> while (b) comes from the "used any way you want" sense of (a).
>
We can't know what went through the mind of whoever it was who first
used the term to apply to a regular expression, I know. My impression
was, from the quotations, that such a person might be more familiar
with the use of the word in sport (which was news to me) than in
actual card games. You're closer to the origin of the usage, though,
so I'll take your suggestion as likely.
It's not, though, entirely clear what the difference between those two
is. The joker stands for any card because it can be used for any card
- you can, of course, use a joker to light a cigar, which would be
'any way you want', but I don't think that's part of the meaning -
it's only usable as any card you want because it stands for any card.
The disputes I recall from games using a joker was whether it took on
a fixed identity once played or whether it could still be interpreted
any way you wanted - so, if you said you played it as a seven of
clubs, but, as the game progressed, it became more convenient if you'd
played it as a jack of diamonds, then you could treat it as such. I
could see, and I'm sure I deployed, arguments both ways.