From: u502sou@bnhb484.de   
      
   I have read, long ago, a short story that I'll vaguely summarize:   
      
   The Hero is a xenolinguist working in an exploration team on a newly   
   discovered planet, trying to find out if the observed species are   
   intelligent (because this would forbid human settlement).   
      
   His software can't match on the sound samples, until he forces it   
   to ignore the sound and match on the silence.   
      
   (There was a joke programming language like that:   
   [[Whitespace (programming language]].)   
      
   (Some intra-humans romance involved.)   
   Does anybody remember this? I suspect it might be from the 1980s, possibly   
   late 1970s.   
      
   (I read this translated to German, I assume it came from the English   
    language.)   
      
   Regards   
           -is   
      
      
   --   
   A medium apple... weighs 182 grams, yields 95 kcal, and contains no   
   caffeine, thus making it unsuitable for sysadmins. - Brian Kantor   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)