Naming Things

#1

Post by flavioribeiro » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 9:57 AM UTC

Naming Things
blog.flavioribeiro.com

Re: Naming Things

#2

Post by greenyoda » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 11:05 AM UTC

"Marmota" is definitely a cool name for software. However, it isn't just Portugese; it's also the scientific name for a genus of rodents (marmots) that includes groundhogs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmot

Re: Naming Things

#3

Post by praptak » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 11:12 AM UTC

Fun fact: Streams-analyzer, EvoHandler and their ilk are recognized by the reputable compendium of general knowledge that TVTrope is: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NounVerber

Re: Naming Things

#4

Post by flavioribeiro » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 11:17 AM UTC

praptak wrote: post #3

Fun fact: Streams-analyzer , EvoHandler and their ilk are recognized by the reputable compendium of general knowledge that TVTrope is: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NounVerber

NounVerber, hehehe... this is a term I didn't know. thank you for sharing this.

Re: Naming Things

#5

Post by jeessy » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 12:03 PM UTC

Great article, good naming is powerful but it is damn hard.

Lately, I've been working on a project called Office Garden (officegarden.lu). It's interesting to see how people react to my pitch depending on when I give the app's name.

Re: Naming Things

#6

Post by jakobe » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 12:17 PM UTC

When I named my apps, I just tried to come up with the most descriptive name possible. ("MDB Viewer", "PG Commander"). I really want people who look at search engine result pages and app store listings to immediately recognize what my app is good for.

Re: Naming Things

#7

Post by jpdlla » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 12:24 PM UTC

This is always hard even when naming variables, functions, and classes. I always try to be as verbose as possible and sometimes spend like 10 minutes just pondering of a name.

Re: Naming Things

#8

Post by bbrks » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 12:29 PM UTC

jeessy wrote: post #5

Great article, good naming is powerful but it is damn hard. Lately, I've been working on a project called Office Garden (officegarden.lu). It's interesting to see how people react to my pitch depending on when I give the app's name.

Even after visiting your website, I have no idea what Office Garden actually is or does. Maybe I'll find out if I enter my e-mail address into your form...

But then again, maybe not, and my email would end up on yet another list I don't want.

Re: Naming Things

#9

Post by Doctor_Fegg » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 12:37 PM UTC

So. Many. Bad. Names.

The whole Travis/Jenkins/Hudson thing baffles me. Yes, they're all butlers. I can never remember which one is which. And since I'm English, butlers represent the worst of the old, deferential world, the world I spend half my life fighting against... and that's precisely why IMHO they're unsuitable names for anything open-source.

"therubyracer". It's something to do with Ruby. It's presumably quite fast. This isn't telling me much.

But then, I've released a fair amount of shockingly badly named stuff myself, so I should stop here. Other than to improve on the quote that begins TFA:

"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors."

Re: Naming Things

#10

Post by 8ig8 » Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 12:41 PM UTC

When I switched away from MS Office apps to Apple's equivalents, it was such a pain googling for help in "Numbers" and "Pages". The app names are so generic it was frustrating finding relevant results.

How do I "insert page numbers in Pages"?

How do I "round down in Numbers"?

Edit: I guess "Word" is not much better.