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It's a nitpick but I wish everyone stopped spelling it like that and call it Actually Portable Executable at least. That kind of spelling really messes up with

It's a nitpick but I wish everyone stopped spelling it like that and call it Actually Portable Executable at least. That kind of spelling really messes up with my reading comprehension, and I think it does for many people.

dEnigma 4y ago
Terrible for screen readers too I'd assume. But maybe I'm underestimating their abilities.
- necovek 4y ago
  Screen readers can surely handle Greek just fine, the only problem with the given spelling is that it uses "lookalike" glyphs instead of corresponding characters from the Greek alphabet (eg. use of "mu"/µ for "u"). Of course, I am sure some screen readers will simply take a custom text preprocessor that will turn l337sp34k and similar spellings like this one into regular text, but I am certain none of them have it as the default.
tasuki 4y ago
Well, αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε is what the author calls it. I appreciate it when people respect author's choice of naming. If I had a wish, it would be for the author to change the name.
- pseudalopex 4y ago
  The author calls it Actually Portable Executable too.[1] [1] https://justine.lol/ape.html https://justine.lol/ape.html
shakna 4y ago
My screen reader doesn't pronounce it the way you'd expect, because it's not using Greek characters the way they should be, but it is the name. Transliterating it, is as wrong as using the original, but the author prefers the original, so that one wins out.
samatman 4y ago
No inside knowledge here but I figured Justine intends it as a shibboleth. I use a magic string somewhere, which has control codes, three ASCII digits for versioning, and an RTL UTF-8 character, and is exactly eight bytes wide. Anything munges my file, I'll know. Meanwhile I can just mask it.
- IshKebab 4y ago
  That's not really what a shibboleth is...
  - samatman 4y ago
    Obviously we're from different tribes because clearly you're wrong, and I'm compelled to cut your throat and throw you in the Jordan river. I think. Been awhile since I've reviewed the source material.
  - nano9 4y ago
    It's a shibboleth for knowing who the author is, you could say.
- ElectricalUnion 4y ago
  > No inside knowledge here but I figured Justine intends it as a shibboleth. I would not call it a shibboleth, but vague, generic terms are known to be for most purposes unsearchable, and having a really unique string identifier for your thing could make it more valuable. It reminds me of this other HN link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32241020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32241020
karatinversion 4y ago
Surely we should transliterate it as “actmally pdrtable ekhecmtable”?
orthoxerox 4y ago
Or Actmally pdrtable execmtable, at least.
toyg 4y ago
Probably bad for SEO too.
- toyg 4y ago
  SEO has become such a tainted word that clearly it cannot be used anymore to shorten "Making something useful easy to find in search engines by anyone who might be interested" - people think anything mentioning SEO is from narcissists or scam artists, and downvote. What other term would people suggest then? Surely it's a real concern for projects to be easily accessible by people looking for them.
nano9 4y ago
The Greek delta being used as a "o" irks me a bit too, because to me it looks very much like a consonant, but I make a one-off exception for this project.

dEnigma 4y ago

Terrible for screen readers too I'd assume. But maybe I'm underestimating their abilities.

necovek 4y ago
Screen readers can surely handle Greek just fine, the only problem with the given spelling is that it uses "lookalike" glyphs instead of corresponding characters from the Greek alphabet (eg. use of "mu"/µ for "u"). Of course, I am sure some screen readers will simply take a custom text preprocessor that will turn l337sp34k and similar spellings like this one into regular text, but I am certain none of them have it as the default.

tasuki 4y ago

Well, αcτµαlly pδrταblε εxεcµταblε is what the author calls it. I appreciate it when people respect author's choice of naming. If I had a wish, it would be for the author to change the name.

pseudalopex 4y ago
The author calls it Actually Portable Executable too.[1] [1] https://justine.lol/ape.html https://justine.lol/ape.html

shakna 4y ago

My screen reader doesn't pronounce it the way you'd expect, because it's not using Greek characters the way they should be, but it is the name. Transliterating it, is as wrong as using the original, but the author prefers the original, so that one wins out.

samatman 4y ago

No inside knowledge here but I figured Justine intends it as a shibboleth. I use a magic string somewhere, which has control codes, three ASCII digits for versioning, and an RTL UTF-8 character, and is exactly eight bytes wide. Anything munges my file, I'll know. Meanwhile I can just mask it.

IshKebab 4y ago
That's not really what a shibboleth is...
- samatman 4y ago
  Obviously we're from different tribes because clearly you're wrong, and I'm compelled to cut your throat and throw you in the Jordan river. I think. Been awhile since I've reviewed the source material.
- nano9 4y ago
  It's a shibboleth for knowing who the author is, you could say.
ElectricalUnion 4y ago
> No inside knowledge here but I figured Justine intends it as a shibboleth. I would not call it a shibboleth, but vague, generic terms are known to be for most purposes unsearchable, and having a really unique string identifier for your thing could make it more valuable. It reminds me of this other HN link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32241020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32241020

karatinversion 4y ago

Surely we should transliterate it as “actmally pdrtable ekhecmtable”?

orthoxerox 4y ago

Or Actmally pdrtable execmtable, at least.

toyg 4y ago

Probably bad for SEO too.

toyg 4y ago
SEO has become such a tainted word that clearly it cannot be used anymore to shorten "Making something useful easy to find in search engines by anyone who might be interested" - people think anything mentioning SEO is from narcissists or scam artists, and downvote. What other term would people suggest then? Surely it's a real concern for projects to be easily accessible by people looking for them.

nano9 4y ago

The Greek delta being used as a "o" irks me a bit too, because to me it looks very much like a consonant, but I make a one-off exception for this project.