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> high entropy names This sounds like a useful metaphor, but I'm unable to fully comprehend it because I suck at thermodynamics and information theory. Could y
by VladimirGolovin 10y ago
> high entropy names
This sounds like a useful metaphor, but I'm unable to fully comprehend it because I suck at thermodynamics and information theory. Could you please elaborate a bit and include some examples of high-entropy names?
(I'm asking because naming is hell, and I'll need to name three products very soon).
- khuey 10y agoThe Linux 'perf' tool is one of the canonical examples.
- ThisIs_MyName 10y agoThis should answer your question about entropy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory) tl;dr If you use names that are similar to other names, you will convey less information every time you use such names. So pick a name which doesn't require additional bits to disambiguate. Note that English conveys roughly 1 bit of information per word.
- icebraining 10y agoNote that English conveys roughly 1 bit of information per word. I think that's per character, not word.
- Crespyl 10y agoMaybe he's using UTF-16.
- skybrian 10y agoIt's just a fancy way to say names that have rarely been used. (In compressed data, commonly used strings are represented using fewer bits.) You could estimate this by doing a search.