How to pronounce "Dhrystone"?

[fl]

Hi,

The word "Dhrystone" is not an uncommon word seen on computer engineering, but
I don't know how to pronounce it. I have looked it up on several online
dictionary, but no one gives pronunciation.

WiKi gives a phase "Dhrystone vs. Whetstone". It looks like the origin of it.
Could you give me the spelling components of it, or point me an online
dictionary which can pronounce it?


Thanks,

[snide...@gmail.com]

AIUI, it is indeed a pun (of sorts)., and Wikipedia is apparently showing that to you.

I've always heard it pronounced as if were "dry stone". The 'h' is silent,
and for many of us the 'h' in "whet" is silent, too.

A whetstone is used to sharpen blades (knives, swords, etc),
and is just a grindstone with a fine texture.
Just to confuse things, the blade being sharpened is often dipped into water
as a way of lubricating it, so it may also be "wet".
(Some oils, like honing oil, are a better lubricant, but may not have been
in common use 400 years ago.)

The punning may lead from whetstone to Wheatstone (electrical pioneer who
invented a circuit of the :bridge" type). Otherwise, I defer to The Wiki
as to how the measurement got its name.

/dps

[Mike Barnes]

fl wrote:
> Hi,
>
> The word "Dhrystone" is not an uncommon word seen on computer engineering, but
> I don't know how to pronounce it. I have looked it up on several online
> dictionary, but no one gives pronunciation.

As if was "Drystone".

--
Mike Barnes
Cheshire, England

[Peter Moylan]

The original Whetstone benchmark was named after the Whetstone Algol 60
compiler for which it was written. The compiler was named after a
village in England whose name was, of course, Whetstone. I have no idea
how the village got its name, but it is highly improbable that it was
named after Charles Wheatstone.

The spelling of Dhrystone is, of course, a joke.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

It is possible that stone suitable for use as "whetstones" was found in
that area.

A lot of things have happened in that village:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whetstone,_Leicestershire

Whetstone was the site of Frank Whittle's factory, where jet engines
were developed. ... Until 2002 the site still sounded an
air raid siren at 8am once a week on a Wednesday.

The site of the Whittle factory became the English Electric Company
(Later GEC) a significant part of several Nuclear power stations
were made there in the 1960s and 70s. English Electric was one of
the largest Engineering Companies in the Leicester area, employing
thousands of workers and training hundreds of apprentices each year.
At one point more than 4,000 workers had to be shipped in from
Middlesex to help labour shortages and many settled permanently
causing a boom in the late 60s.

The computer performance measurement called the "Whetstone" was
developed by English Electric at the factory and takes its name from
the village.

The "Whetstone" performance measurement got its name from the village
indirectly. The originally performance-measuring program was written in
Algol 60 and compiled using the Whetstone Algol 60 compiler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whetstone_%28benchmark%29

>The spelling of Dhrystone is, of course, a joke.

--

Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)

[snide...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, July 22, 2015 at 4:23:09 AM UTC-7, PeterWD wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Jul 2015 18:06:42 +1000, Peter Moylan
> <pe...@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:
> >On 2015-Jul-22 16:19, snide...@gmail.com wrote:
> >> On Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 10:52:06 PM UTC-7, fl wrote:
> >>> Hi,
> >>>
> >>> The word "Dhrystone" is not an uncommon word seen on computer engineering, but
> >>> I don't know how to pronounce it. I have looked it up on several online
> >>> dictionary, but no one gives pronunciation.
> >>>
> >>> WiKi gives a phase "Dhrystone vs. Whetstone". It looks like the origin of it.
> >>> Could you give me the spelling components of it, or point me an online
> >>> dictionary which can pronounce it?
> >>>

[...]

> >> The punning may lead from whetstone to Wheatstone (electrical pioneer who
> >> invented a circuit of the :bridge" type). Otherwise, I defer to The Wiki
> >> as to how the measurement got its name.
> >
> >The original Whetstone benchmark was named after the Whetstone Algol 60
> >compiler for which it was written. The compiler was named after a
> >village in England whose name was, of course, Whetstone. I have no idea
> >how the village got its name, but it is highly improbable that it was
> >named after Charles Wheatstone.
> >
> It is possible that stone suitable for use as "whetstones" was found in
> that area.
>
> A lot of things have happened in that village:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whetstone,_Leicestershire
>

[...]

> The computer performance measurement called the "Whetstone" was
> developed by English Electric at the factory and takes its name from
> the village.
>
> The "Whetstone" performance measurement got its name from the village
> indirectly. The originally performance-measuring program was written in
> Algol 60 and compiled using the Whetstone Algol 60 compiler.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whetstone_%28benchmark%29
>
>
> >The spelling of Dhrystone is, of course, a joke.

Thanks, guys! I probably was aware of the Whetstone benchmark when I learned
about the Dhrystone one, but I didn't know the town at all. YRDLSH.

/dps