Unicorn • Hacker News Board

Re: Unicorn

#41

Post by mythz » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:09 PM UTC

I personally like my HTTP Util thin DRY extensions over .NET WebRequest better - more readable and concise and you retain access to the underlying HttpWebRequest so you don't lose any flexibility:

https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack/wiki/Http-Utils

Re: Unicorn

#42

Post by eranation » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:10 PM UTC

pak wrote: post #3

Could they have possibly picked a more confusing name? 1. Unicorn for Ruby: http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ 2. Green Unicorn for Python: http://gunicorn.org/ The fact that this is an HTTP request library, as opposed to a server, is what pushes this into serious troll territory. The only saving grace here is that Java programmers searching for this library might come upon one of the other two and realize what they are mi…

One point to be taken - as an old (35 years old) Java developer, who knows Ruby from page 4 of the rails tutorial and tryruby mostly, I would not have that confusion problem with the unicorn server (which I hear about here in the first time)

And still I'm really happy to see some Java friendly open source project hit HN front page (either due to legit reasons or due to naming confusion). I feel I'm not forgotten, and yes, I will use this soon to be renamed library in a real project today, as using Apache Http Client is a real HeadacheFactory sometimes. and this is what I used to revert to most of the time as we java folks simply don't get many new, modern open source libraries developed with Java developers in mind very often these days.

Re: Unicorn

#43

Post by djbender » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:12 PM UTC

anonfunction wrote: post #25

Everyone, we are listening! We are throwing around new names but they all suck. Any ideas?

Thank you _so_ much. A renaming will really help set your projects apart.

Re: Unicorn

#44

Post by dschep » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:13 PM UTC

Aside from the name crazyness this seems like a very thin layer on top of existing libraries to create a shared API across languages.

Being mainly a Python dev, I see little reason to use it instead of Requests. It has a similar API for the basic verbs but nothing else.

A quick glance at the code indicates to me that it doesn't have alot of the other features requests has (eg: simpler auth, cookies. builtin connection pooling). And worse it will explode on large a large response[1]

[1] https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-python/blob/master/unicor...

Re: Unicorn

#45

Post by biot » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:14 PM UTC

nijiko wrote: post #7

tptacek wrote: post #2

Extremely confusing name, given that Unicorn happens to be the name of both an extremely popular Ruby web server and its extremely popular Python port.

My little cousin decided it and I didn't have the heart to break his...

So rather than taking the opportunity to provide a lesson on project naming, you've let him think that it's a perfectly valid name. Now an entire development community is about to shoot down the project because you wanted to play the nice guy. How cruel!

Re: Unicorn

#46

Post by examancer » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:15 PM UTC

anonfunction wrote: post #25

Everyone, we are listening! We are throwing around new names but they all suck. Any ideas?

There are plenty of names available that are somewhat related to unicorn, allowing you to keep the site design and pretty much everything else. Here are a few:

- Alicorn (what a unicorn's horn is made of, apparently)

- Oryx (An antelope-like creature that has a unicorn-ish horn and actually exists)

- Eland (another antelope-like creature that has two horns, but apparently is worshipped by tribes people)

- Unico (a cartoon unicorn)

- Peggy (another unicorn name)

- Camphurch (type of unicorn. ugly.)

- Ki-Lin (a chinese unicorn made of two separate unicorns)

Hope these help. Alicorn and Oryx are my favorites.

Re: Unicorn

#47

Post by nijiko » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:21 PM UTC

willismichael wrote: post #34

willismichael wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Centaur, Minotaur, Pegasus, Satyr, Gryphon...

If you want to go with Gryphon, here's a nice piece of open-source artwork: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$mo...

Wow, are you sure this is open-source? We are going over names and this one seems the fastest to replace unicorn with.

Re: Unicorn

#48

Post by jrabone » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:21 PM UTC

Christ, the responses on here are absolutely what you'd expect from anyone remotely connected with the Ruby "community" - or at least a bunch of people who don't have sufficient experience with Java to comment on whether a fluent API is an improvement on the Apache HttpClient API, or HttpURLConnection (God help us, despite what Android devs think). When you've finished pissing on the colour scheme, or questioning whether the logo is a "rip off" (clue: used by permission), perhaps you can all go back to upgrading Rails, or stacking your gems in reverse version-number order, or whatever it is you do.

Also - Java. It's the FIFTH word on the page reading Western-style. How the hell can you miss it? Too eager to get to the comments tab?

Re: Unicorn

#49

Post by jrabone » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:22 PM UTC

dljsjr wrote: post #24

I'm going to operate completely under the assumption that the library authors didn't choose the Unicorn name with intentional malice, and that their motivations were entirely benevolent. It looks like a nice enough library, congrats on all of your hard work. That said, this name is going to foster a lot of ill will in the community, for all of the reasons already mentioned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=559741…

Ill will with the Ruby community, maybe, but fuck 'em. As long as it's unique in the Maven namespace, I don't care and neither should they/you.

Re: Unicorn

#50

Post by mrinterweb » Tue, Apr 23, 2013, 8:23 PM UTC

The name alone of this project is very frustrating. As pointed out, there is ruby application server named Unicorn that is quite popular. The ruby application server has the exact same logo except this project chose to flip the logo. This is intentionally confusing. I might be able to appreciate this library if they chose a different name and image, but I can't support a project that is intentionally leading to confusion. It is so bad that it seems like this project is trying to be an imposter of an original project. Is there no shame in open source?