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How Apple names things

nicolas.kruchten.com

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Re: How Apple names things

#191

Post by uranusjr »

zhte415 wrote: post #163
karaterobot wrote: post #154

Wow, I disagree strongly with this one. It's so frustrating that I have to describe a feature to a search engine to find out what it's called, just so I can find it in the Settings (sorry, I mean System Preferences) panel. Continuity, Stage Manager, Exposé, Spotlight, Launchpad, Mission Control. These names don't mean anything, and aren't helpful. They're features, not products, yet they are named like products and y…

Could we just name things functionally+unique? Functionally as in categories of what they do. Example: Oscalc. O: Office; S: Spreadsheet; Calc: Name of application. There's no reason to stick to only one name, Oscalc in English could be XyCalc in another language. And no reason why something with many functionalities could not be in more than one place, PvVLC could be ArVLC too plus deep linked to the recording funct…

Hungarian Notation essentially? Regardless of (assumed) technical advantages I thought we’ve settled most users just don’t like it.

Re: How Apple names things

#192

Post by amelius »

alexcosan wrote: post #134
amelius wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it so hard to just let someone enjoy something? Really, what is there to be joyful about here? I can write a similar essay about how I like the strong capital letters of AMD, the beauty of not falling for the temptation of putting a lower-case "i" in front of it, etc., etc.

It's not really up to you to decide what brings joy to the author. You can write a similar essay, who said you couldn't? What point are you trying to make? If it's something you feel strong about, all power to you. This kind of comment is deprived of any real content.

The point is that some things are better kept to yourself, and if you don't then you might annoy other people.

Re: How Apple names things

#193

Post by tacker2000 »

coldtea wrote: post #176
tacker2000 wrote: post #19

This reads like some typical fanboi stuff. There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?

> There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Nothing bad about those names in utility. They designate 3 different models/spec levels, and they're infinitely better than all crap names DELL or SONY etc ever came up with ("NZ4X5-324DD" and such). As for aesthetics, they're short, easy to remember, and pleasurably sounding. What's not to lik…

Yea but most people dont update their mac os every year, and get “familiar” with the name.

Heck, im still on catalina, imho the last “good” macos version (but thats another discussion).

Anyway, its just that everytime a macos version is mentioned i have to look up the sequence, because i just cant remember it.

One reason is probably also that macos has much more frequent updates (than windows for example) and thats why i cant remember them.

Also you say its hard to sequence the older macos releases, that is true! but i can perfectly sequence the old windows releases. Why? Maybe i used them more? Anyway its still interesting.

In the end it wouldnt be hard for them to use a more helpful, user friendly, naming scheme

Re: How Apple names things

#194

Post by tacker2000 »

latexr wrote: post #110
tacker2000 wrote: post #19

This reads like some typical fanboi stuff. There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?

> There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes Which you’re free to do, and could have done without insulting the author. The submitted post’s very first sentence is “I love the way Apple names things”. The author likes them. They’re sharing a opinion, at no point do they imply they’re the voice of reason or that you should agree with them. What I see from their post is someone who made an effor…

How is fanboi an insult in any way? A fanboi is a “slangy” term for someone that just follows something blindly without questioning it.

Re: How Apple names things

#195

Post by tacker2000 »

Veen wrote: post #145
Jataman606 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it so hard to just let someone enjoy something? Is it so hard to just let someone complain about something? Everyone can have their own opinion, i don't know why some people want every single one to be positive.

There's a difference between critiquing an opinion and being a rude asshole. The "typical fanboi stuff" commentor was being a rude asshole.

How is the word “fanboi” rude? And how does your ad hominem “rude asshole” in any way balance this? Please enlighten me.

Re: How Apple names things

#196

Post by tacker2000 »

sbuk wrote: post #22
tacker2000 wrote: post #19

This reads like some typical fanboi stuff. There are a lot of things to also hate about apples naming schemes, just look at the pro, max, se nonsense they cooked up. Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?

> * Also the naming scheme of Mac OS versions, i can never figure out which one came before or after the other, there is no rhyme or reason. Why dont they use alphabetical sorted names? Or years/numbers like Windows…?* They do. Ventura is macOS 13. In fact, when they dropped OS X, they did a bit in the key note explaining that instead of it being OS X 10.16 Catalina, it would now now be macOS 11 Catalina. See  > Abo…

Yes, of course they have real version numbers and these make sense! But the thing is, almost everywhere we see the marketing names being used, so thats where i see the problem.

Re: How Apple names things

#197

Post by alexcosan »

amelius wrote: post #192
alexcosan wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really up to you to decide what brings joy to the author. You can write a similar essay, who said you couldn't? What point are you trying to make? If it's something you feel strong about, all power to you. This kind of comment is deprived of any real content.

The point is that some things are better kept to yourself, and if you don't then you might annoy other people.

This is deviating too much from the original topic, but: 1) Your initial comment just took a bash at the author about being joyful regarding some topic - "what's there to be joyful", which is really a subjective matter; 2) I'll take your point, but I strongly disagree. I would never recommend anyone living by "do not share, you might annoy other people", you will never share anything then. Case in point, you shared your thoughts, I'm pretty sure you didn't care whether someone would be annoyed by your opinion ;) 3) Not sharing a small analysis regarding words and naming just because it may annoy someone it's a huge stretch. It's not even like he's sharing some hot political topic. Someone that gets annoyed at looking at such a simple project may want to take a deep breath and go for a walk. But anyway, that's my view.

Re: How Apple names things

#198

Post by plufz »

oblio wrote: post #93
plufz wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think anyone has said that Apple never used bad names…? But I don’t think it is radical to say (atleast among us who works with branding) that ipod, mac, powerbook, macbook, itunes, airpods, etc. are strong names.

Frankly all the i-devices are just bad naming. The products themselves were/are great but their names are really bad. "I phone" kind of works, but "I pod"? "I pad"? Really? :-)

iPod is bad how? It is short, looks good typographically, it is unique, easy to remember, easy to pronounce even for non native speakers. Do you mean that it is not descriptive? In that case, that does not matter.

Re: How Apple names things

#199

Post by Veen »

tacker2000 wrote: post #195
Veen wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between critiquing an opinion and being a rude asshole. The "typical fanboi stuff" commentor was being a rude asshole.

How is the word “fanboi” rude? And how does your ad hominem “rude asshole” in any way balance this? Please enlighten me.

> Please enlighten me.

For the purposes of enlightenment: Your comment is typical nerd stuff. You’re biased by your failure to understand how human communications and social interactions work.

Re: How Apple names things

#200

Post by krackers »

knolan wrote: post #65

One of the nice things I liked about OS X when I moved from Windows/Ubuntu around 2010 was the clear but playful naming of apps and utilities. They seemed to have presence. The large and beautiful high resolution icons helped too. In Windows Disk Management was hidden away and searching for it would return a nebulous list with long winded descriptions but never name Disk Management forcing me to carefully read each r…

Disk Utility (the old version anyway) is an underrated tool. Sure you can use clonezilla or gparted or something, but having something built in and idiot-proof is a real joy. The only thing I wish it supported was moving partitions around.
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