[GLLUG] Meeting Thursday, September 28

[Thomas Hruska]

Caleb Cushing wrote:
> remind me to refute this in my presentation, because, sorry tom, this
> is simply untrue, or irrelavant most commands make more sense to me
> than in other os's and proprietary has names that are just as weird or
> make less sense.
> 
>> The command-line grants great power and refined control but must be used
>> wisely or one might 'rm -rf /' and lose everything.  What's really
>> mysterious is why some of the commands are so weirdly named (e.g. 'ls' =
>> directory listing?!  'Samba' = network sharing?!).  The answer?  That's
>> the average Linux programmer for you - weird names for everything
>> instead of picking names that make sense.  Weird names make it hard to
>> find the command-line you are looking for but it's okay...that's what
>> Google and 3 hours of searching to obtain the correct "incantation" are
>> for.  Or you can come to the meeting and learn from those who have done
>> the Google searching already.
>>
>> <grin>
>>
>> (That's my weak attempt at humor.  Open Source programmers _DO_ pick
>> some of the strangest names for their projects...which can make the
>> right project difficult to find unless you know the name in advance.)

You missed my point altogether Caleb.  The point is that the names 
_chosen_ are decided by the _programmer_.  They didn't bother to ask 
_users_ what THEY thought the name should be.

You use 'ls' and other commands without thinking.  Sure.  But there 
wasn't ever a vote about the name by those who would use it.  Microsoft, 
for example, probably had several (internal) business meetings about the 
name choice for the 'dir'ectory listing command.  Most of those people 
were probably technically inclined, but there was some semblance of 
coordination, direction, and customer analysis involved.*

Unfortunately, most of the good names are taken anymore.  And, if I may 
make one case in point about weird names.  The "Linux Registry" project 
changed its name to Elektra.  It had a perfectly good name at the #1 
position on Google and switched names to something no one would ever 
find again (esp. since there are a movie and comic book character by the 
same name).  Granted only programmers care about that particular 
project, but once a name has been chosen, stick with it through 
thick-and-thin.

Thus, changing something like 'ls' to something else would be bad.  I'm 
just trying to say that users should be able to have a say in the naming 
of projects instead of leaving it to programmers who have no clue.

* To be fair, Microsoft has its own fair share of weird names too. 
Visual C++ .NET 2005 for instance confuses people into thinking programs 
written with it require .NET when the .NET-specific libraries have to be 
_explicitly_ compiled in - the person can write perfectly normal 
non-.NET programs.

My point is that I want to see _users_ involved in choosing names. 
Users have this habit of pointing out obviously poor names.  For 
instance, Jackson National Life's parent company Prudential UK picked 
the stock symbol PUK for going IPO.  Everyone at JNL had a good laugh 
when the symbol was unveiled...no one involved in the choice had noticed 
PUK could be pronounced 'puck' or 'puke'.  Long after, people who deal 
with stocks still have a consistently good chuckle when they see PUK.

I have a recent case myself where I picked a bad name.  Several of you 
have seen what I've been working on at the meetings.  I'm currently 
running it through beta testing and users are consistently calling it 
something other than I initially labeled it.  So, I'm going back and 
making a minor change.  It is a single space difference in the name but 
that difference is apparently quite important.

--
Thomas Hruska
CubicleSoft President
Ph: 517-803-4197

Safe C++ Design Principles (First Edition)
Learn how to write memory leak-free, secure,
stable, portable, and user-friendly software.

Learn more and view a sample chapter:
http://www.CubicleSoft.com/SafeCPPDesign/