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Cool project! Something to consider: "Transformer"[1] is already used to refer to a popular element of state of the art deep neural networks, especially ones th

Cool project! Something to consider: "Transformer"[1] is already used to refer to a popular element of state of the art deep neural networks, especially ones that are used on natural language, i.e. text. That might make this name a little confusing for people who have a foot in that world, especially since "Universal" and "Text" are also words thrown around in similar contexts. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_(machine_learning_model) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_(machine_learning_...

BaseballPhysics 5y ago
The term "transformer" is used throughout mathematics and computing. Machine learning hardly has the monopoly on it. Or should, for example, Haskell rename their monad transformers library?
notamy 5y ago
Good to know, thanks! I was originally considering a name more like "universal text finagler" but then I realised that there's already a well-known "UTF" (:
- throwawybllion 5y ago
  uft: Universal Finagler of Text, Universal Format Translator? unt: unt is not a transformer?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- chungy 5y ago
  UTF itself is already short for "Unicode Transformation Format" and certainly predates any usage of the middle word by ML projects.
ketralnis 5y ago
It's also a concept in haskell but I don't think anybody would claim a monopoly on the idea of transforming things
- rurban 5y ago
  coreutils did initially. but there's also grep, awk and perl. this could be called tiny, huge, text transformer: thtt tiny because functionality, and huge for java
laumars 5y ago
Transform is also used in data mangling to mean exactly what this tool does. Transformation is also used in enterprise IT to mean modernising. Transformer is also a mathematics term, a kids toy and many other things. In short, ML doesn’t have a monopoly on it.
- blueblob 5y ago
  Well, the really ironic part of it is that the machine learning models using transformers were literally conceived for converting between languages. So this would be quite the valid use case. Unfortunately, it makes the name more confusing.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
amelius 5y ago
Deep learning also messed up the definition of tensor, and so they are the ones who should be careful with picking names. (That you can represent a tensor by a multidimensional array does not mean that a tensor is a multidimensional array). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor
- xiphias2 5y ago
  It doesn’t look that messed up to me. The vector word is used both as an element of a vector space and the coordinates. Tensor was so far mostly used only for the multilinear relationship, but its numerical description is a natural extension of the vector word.
- blueblob 5y ago
  Making one oversimplification means you need to be very particular? The point stands that some people that look at this tool will likely expect something very different than what it is. If this tool gets enough prominence, it won't be a problem. If it doesn't, it will be a misleadingly named software stack. Worse things have definitely happened.
metadat 5y ago
Almost every Show HN includes detractors complaining about namespace collisions or like parent, general name critiques. This is fine, I just wish it'd be towards the tail end of the thread since as a rule of thumb, such discussions are intellectually low-value.
- politician 5y ago
  It would be nice, albeit a bit tricky to implement, for downvotes to be optionally augmented with a choice from capped list of reasons. Among them, "it would be better if..." and "i have a different opinion", in addition to "this is badthink" and "this is offensive to me".
  - fkfkno 5y ago
    To take this idea one step further, each of those options could be attributed to a colour value. Then, instead of "greying out" the resulting comment would be an amalgam of the received votes, giving an indication of exactly what it was in particular that caused the comment to be downvoted. The stronger hues would then indicate a degree of consensus among the audience. Of course, the same should be applied the other way, so when upvoting, one could also choose to assign a value for "this is good but could be improved", "I have a different opinion, but the above comment is worthy of consideration", "this is simply a correct take" and "this comment is pleasing to me". And for the sake of readability, maybe instead of the whole comment being coloured, a marker could be applied before or after unadulterated text so that it remained accessible during the course of this process! The challenge would be in deciding which colors represent what sentiment, as these days even our visible light spectrum seems to be corrupted by political/moral/tribal prejudgements. So perhaps it would do more harm than good. It may make for an interesting experiment, all the same.
newbie789 5y ago
tomcam 5y ago
I’m thinking it should be called Cockroach something something

BaseballPhysics 5y ago

The term "transformer" is used throughout mathematics and computing. Machine learning hardly has the monopoly on it. Or should, for example, Haskell rename their monad transformers library?

notamy 5y ago

Good to know, thanks! I was originally considering a name more like "universal text finagler" but then I realised that there's already a well-known "UTF" (:

throwawybllion 5y ago
uft: Universal Finagler of Text, Universal Format Translator? unt: unt is not a transformer?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
chungy 5y ago
UTF itself is already short for "Unicode Transformation Format" and certainly predates any usage of the middle word by ML projects.

ketralnis 5y ago

It's also a concept in haskell but I don't think anybody would claim a monopoly on the idea of transforming things

rurban 5y ago
coreutils did initially. but there's also grep, awk and perl. this could be called tiny, huge, text transformer: thtt tiny because functionality, and huge for java

laumars 5y ago

Transform is also used in data mangling to mean exactly what this tool does. Transformation is also used in enterprise IT to mean modernising. Transformer is also a mathematics term, a kids toy and many other things. In short, ML doesn’t have a monopoly on it.

blueblob 5y ago
Well, the really ironic part of it is that the machine learning models using transformers were literally conceived for converting between languages. So this would be quite the valid use case. Unfortunately, it makes the name more confusing.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

amelius 5y ago

Deep learning also messed up the definition of tensor, and so they are the ones who should be careful with picking names. (That you can represent a tensor by a multidimensional array does not mean that a tensor is a multidimensional array). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tensor

xiphias2 5y ago
It doesn’t look that messed up to me. The vector word is used both as an element of a vector space and the coordinates. Tensor was so far mostly used only for the multilinear relationship, but its numerical description is a natural extension of the vector word.
blueblob 5y ago
Making one oversimplification means you need to be very particular? The point stands that some people that look at this tool will likely expect something very different than what it is. If this tool gets enough prominence, it won't be a problem. If it doesn't, it will be a misleadingly named software stack. Worse things have definitely happened.

metadat 5y ago

Almost every Show HN includes detractors complaining about namespace collisions or like parent, general name critiques. This is fine, I just wish it'd be towards the tail end of the thread since as a rule of thumb, such discussions are intellectually low-value.

politician 5y ago
It would be nice, albeit a bit tricky to implement, for downvotes to be optionally augmented with a choice from capped list of reasons. Among them, "it would be better if..." and "i have a different opinion", in addition to "this is badthink" and "this is offensive to me".
- fkfkno 5y ago
  To take this idea one step further, each of those options could be attributed to a colour value. Then, instead of "greying out" the resulting comment would be an amalgam of the received votes, giving an indication of exactly what it was in particular that caused the comment to be downvoted. The stronger hues would then indicate a degree of consensus among the audience. Of course, the same should be applied the other way, so when upvoting, one could also choose to assign a value for "this is good but could be improved", "I have a different opinion, but the above comment is worthy of consideration", "this is simply a correct take" and "this comment is pleasing to me". And for the sake of readability, maybe instead of the whole comment being coloured, a marker could be applied before or after unadulterated text so that it remained accessible during the course of this process! The challenge would be in deciding which colors represent what sentiment, as these days even our visible light spectrum seems to be corrupted by political/moral/tribal prejudgements. So perhaps it would do more harm than good. It may make for an interesting experiment, all the same.

newbie789 5y ago

tomcam 5y ago

I’m thinking it should be called Cockroach something something