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A made-up name is better than no name

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Re: A made-up name is better than no name

#81
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a meaningful name is better than an arbitrary made-up name. What's the difference? All names are ultimately arbitrary and made-up. For what it is worth, my best at attempt at interpreting this is that a meaningful name is an arbitrary, made-up name that also comes with a reasonably precise definition. In which case, the idea of choosing a meaningful name is the intent of the article.

> All names are ultimately arbitrary and made-up. You could say that all of human experience is arbitrary and all ideas are made up... The difference between arbitrary and non-arbitrary in this respect is whether someone who speaks the language and has a general relevant technical background would understand what the name means, in principle, or not. If the developer makes up something arbitrary themselves, then they…

> whether someone who speaks the language and has a general relevant technical background would understand what the name means

You are meaning in the case where there is already a well-known name for what is being described? That is reasonable, but in the article there is no pre-existing term known among those with relevant technical background for what is being described. A new name was warranted. Words have to start somewhere. All the words we know began life arbitrary and made-up.

Re: A made-up name is better than no name

#82
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more abstract and technical the subject matter the less likely that it will mirror a familiar real world experience and have a good word. Using a real world name can actually be distracting because it may suggest attributes and behaviors which are not true of the thing. This is why math papers use Greek letters. There is no words for “the amount of space where if the function is close enough than the cube of that…

> Even “string” is technical jargon. "string of characters" as a concept substantially predates the first computers: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22string+of+characters%22&l...

Yes, but if you don’t already know programming or a related field you won’t know that.

So according to modern naming convention it’s a bad name because of gate keeping, ivory tower, etc along with: thread, kernel, float, register, ascii, etc

Re: A made-up name is better than no name

#83
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even “string” is technical jargon. "string of characters" as a concept substantially predates the first computers: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22string+of+characters%22&l...

Yes, but if you don’t already know programming or a related field you won’t know that. So according to modern naming convention it’s a bad name because of gate keeping, ivory tower, etc along with: thread, kernel, float, register, ascii, etc

We have to invent domain-specific language when there is no existing term for an important concept. Each of the terms you mention except ascii (which is an acronym) is imbued with contextual meaning: thread of execution, kernel as in essential core, float as in floating point, register is in that which records and reflects. I’m willing to bet I will find similar pre-computer uses if I go looking.

Which is to say they represent a different approach than simply making up a word devoid of meaning.

Re: A made-up name is better than no name

#84
post #8

I really don’t like this idea if you are sharing this code base with anyone else. I work in one of the magnificent seven and the culture here is codename crazy. Everything has code names, of course: every project, every release of every project, every component or subservice of every project, every internal tool, and often minor features that address some one-off problem in any of the above. I am sure that these name…

> It is impossible to reason about or even understand have the statements made by members of other teams in a meeting or communication because every other word they use is a code name for something that you’ve never heard of and the name doesn’t bear any resemblance to what it represents

Then it's working. That is exactly the point of code names.

Re: A made-up name is better than no name

#85
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but if you don’t already know programming or a related field you won’t know that. So according to modern naming convention it’s a bad name because of gate keeping, ivory tower, etc along with: thread, kernel, float, register, ascii, etc

We have to invent domain-specific language when there is no existing term for an important concept. Each of the terms you mention except ascii (which is an acronym) is imbued with contextual meaning: thread of execution, kernel as in essential core, float as in floating point, register is in that which records and reflects. I’m willing to bet I will find similar pre-computer uses if I go looking. Which is to say they…

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