Thete is no way to give descriptive names unless it is a single centralized system. Names need to be consistent, this is the main requirement for a good set of names. When the whole set is consistent, individual names can be nearly arbitrary, it won't matter much.
Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
381–390 of 563 posts
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always read it as “[disk|data] destroyer”, because that’s what it’ll do if you’re not careful.
You know, this is true. And I've read any number of "you should never use dd, use this instead" articles over the years. But man, do I love me some dd.
dd is the software equivalent of removing the riving knife from a table saw.
Then again, I get very paranoid when I write software that has to delete arbitrary files recursively. One bad string gets in there and it's a very bad day.
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but to claim we have "lost the plot" while holding up names like "awk" is contradictory at best My argument is that even a name like awk is much more relevant to the people who used this software back then, of course it was not the best way to name it, but at least it held some meaning to it. Unlike modern software, awk and others were not written with the consideration of a wide user-base in mind. Regarding whethe…
> My argument is that even a name like awk is much more relevant to the people who used this software back then, of course it was not the best way to name it, but at least it held some meaning to it. Unlike modern software, awk and others were not written with the consideration of a wide user-base in mind. Regarding whether we "lost the plot" or not, I believe that we did, because as mentioned, in the 80s there was a…
Name it after your favourite football players and functional names will be enforced within the first 3 reviews.
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#384Fun party game: Ask people if they know ChatGPT. When they inevitably say "yes", ask what GPT stands for.
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even GNU is a recursive acronym, Emacs a convoluted one... What's Perl, Python, Java... all about? Remember how JavaScript was named? Don't mention Go (go-lang) or Pascal... Git, Mercurial, CVS anyone? I believe this makes much ado about nothing.
Java is easy - named after the coffee beans of the coffee they used to drink... CVS (noticed already mentioned by a sibling comment) is just an abbreviation. Python - well Monty Python
Java was originally called Oak but its creator because he could see an oak from his office, but marketing people at Sun thought Java would be more catchy. Yes it's named after coffee beans, but it has no relation whatsoever to the language or the way it was created, it's just a marketing name.
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
Americium, Einsteinium, Unobtanium also show chemistry isn't so uptight as suggested.
Unobtanium is fiction from the movie Avatar lol Notoriously bad exposition I might add ("This is unobtanium. This is what we're here for!").
unobtainium predates Avatar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium
and at least that exposition makes more sense then the "fountain of youth brain juice" in the sequel, when the humans can literally reincarnate themselves without having to cross interstellar space to do it.
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#387Worse is the Git UI, where random English words that seem to have a clear meaning in the context of source control don't do at all what you think they do, or five different things, or are really just a bunch of other commands wrapped together for less typing (like "pull").
I would rather have fantasy names than wrong names.
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
> > No chemist wakes up and decides to call it “Steve” because Steve is a funny name and they think it’ll make their paper more approachable. The author is just wrong. Chemistry is fairly jam-packed with various cutesy names either to amuse the authors or because they’re attempting to make an algorithm memorable to the field. Off the top of my head: - SHAKE and RATTLE: Bond constraint algorithms. - CHARMm: An MD pack…
yeah like how about the "sonic hedgehog" protein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog_protein
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#389Is fun not allowed anymore? In the past 3 days I've seen posts and comments on HN saying that:
- everything in interfaces should be useful, decorative icons are bad
- presentation slides should not use animations
- now fun name are forbidden too apparently
What the fuck?
> No chemist wakes up and decides to call it “Steve” because Steve is a funny name
Do you want to enter the discussion on how physicists named quarks?
Re: Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools
#390Is fun not allowed anymore? In the past 3 days I've seen posts and comments on HN saying that: - everything in interfaces should be useful, decorative icons are bad - presentation slides should not use animations - now fun name are forbidden too apparently What the fuck? > No chemist wakes up and decides to call it “Steve” because Steve is a funny name Do you want to enter the discussion on how physicists named quark…
the whole post/topic has amazing engagement farming potential
the correct response should be the "that's bait" GIF/meme (from the aptly namee Fury Road documentary)