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I'm always surprised with the bland and uninspiring names choosen by FLOSS projects. Anyway, good idea of a project ! Anyone understands the difference with A

I'm always surprised with the bland and uninspiring names choosen by FLOSS projects. Anyway, good idea of a project ! Anyone understands the difference with Apertus AXIOM ? https://www.apertus.org/fr/en https://www.apertus.org/fr/en

tokai 4y ago
Its not a true HN thread about a FLOSS project without gall towards the name.
robert_foss 4y ago
libcamera isn't firmware for cameras. It's a userspace framework for enabling and abstracting away the terribleness of v4l2 & quirky hardware.
secondcoming 4y ago
On the upside, the name tells you what it is and does.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- ttoinou 4y ago
  Well, not really. It deals with a portion of what you need to build a camera, so which portion exactly is it ? And now if someone else creates another FLOSS camera library / toolkit they're going to call it libcam and we'll all get confused about who's who
  - humanistbot 4y ago
    > And now if someone else creates another FLOSS camera library / toolkit they're going to call it libcam and we'll all get confused about who's who You identified a problem with ALL names. If someone developing a new library in the same general area (library for cameras) chops three letters off the end of an existing library to name their project, that is the second project's fault, not the first project's.
    - ttoinou 4y ago
      Well you need to think about the whole thing before coming up with a name. I don't care about blaming people here
      - humanistbot 4y ago
        > I don't care about blaming people here Says the person blaming the creators for their name.
        ttoinou 4y ago
        I only said "I'm always surprised". I am wondering about this topic, and the replies are helpful
optymizer 4y ago
You should not be surprised. Choosing 'fun' names is subjective. This is a tool, not a disney ride. Not everything needs to trigger dopamine rushes and it's ok to have clear, straightforward names in software, seeing as naming things is hard.
- palata 4y ago
  Personally I don't want fun names, but I wish people used unique, writable, pronounceable names. Try to search for "camera" and see if you find this project. On the other hand, v4l2 is pretty unique. If all text editors are called "TextEditor", maybe the name says what it is, but the name is useless. For a company, you just use the company name ("Microsoft Word", assuming that the company name is unique enough), but for an open source project...
  - arbitrage 4y ago
    Your argument is one heck of a strawman. Why on earth would you use a search engine to search for "camera" and be disappointed that libcamera didn't make the front page of your results? Searching for "lib camera", "libcamera", or "camera lib" returns this project as the top result.
    - palata 4y ago
      Sorry I meant it as a general comment for project names, not for this one in particular. And it is just my preference: given that "names that say what it does" don't really help me discriminate projects in general, I feel like "unique names" would be better. And if, like many company, a ton of money will be put into infinite brainstorming sessions by people with a good salary, I feel like maybe just going for a fun, unique name would be cheaper and not less effective. "Apple" does not return the fruit in the top results, but I wouldn't say it's a good name for a new project in 2022. Same for "word", I wouldn't advise you call your project like this, even if the top results are "Microsoft Word" and nothing related to the actual meaning of the word. I come from an industry where everyone uses the same prefixes/suffixes (related to the industry) together with names that "mean something". As a result, it's never really unique, and the only way to differentiate them is to always name them together with the company name. There is one in particular where the company name says what their product does, and it is similar to another product. For that one I _always_ need to Google it and go check the geographical location of both companies, because that's how I differentiate them: the names (and in this case the company name) do not help me.
deredede 4y ago
I love bland and uninspiring names. What's libcamera? A library for dealing with cameras, I'd wager. What's AXIOM? Not sure... My first guess would be a proof assistant. It's also not just FOSS, Apple for instance has many ThingKits(HealthKit, UIKit) but also TextEdit.
- fnord123 4y ago
  100% agree! Contrast with "Pokemon or Big Data" https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/ https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/
  - mardifoufs 4y ago
    The same can be said about anything related to MLOps. The naming schemes are so out there but they all end up sounding similarly... generic. It's kind of weird really
- Uehreka 4y ago
  I don’t, and here’s why: If libcamera turns out to be a bust, then we’ve burnt that name. Now the next library will have to be called something like libeyeopener, and I’ll have to spend years telling people “although libcamera sounds like the ‘official’ camera library, the one you actually want is libeyeopener.” “Fanciful” names don’t squat on valuable namespace and allow different approaches to duke it out without one of them getting the advantage of sounding like the “official” one.
  - deredede 4y ago
    If the libs are called Barracuda and Seagull you'll have to spend years telling people "although you have heard of Barracuda, the lib you want to use now is Seagull", I don't see that as very different. People don't make library choices based on the name only, they search for what is recommended online and look at examples/features/etc. I do concede that all else being equal people will gravitate towards the more "official" sounding library, but if all else's equal, it's not really an issue.
  - 4y ago
fimdomeio 4y ago
Apple as creative names like. Mail, Pages, Numbers, Calendar, Photos... I actually think this is great for most users. What makes more sense for a user that knows very little about computers use an app called Mail to check the emails or one called Thunderbird. The only place where this convenience fails is for google searches.
- palata 4y ago
  "Is Numbers a calculator? Or an accounting app maybe?" "Is Calendar the one I just installed, or is it the one Apple is forcing me to use?" "Wait, so there is an app called Mail that I cannot remove, but my e-mail app is called Thunderbird? Let me note that." 1) People will learn the name of the apps they use, it's not that hard 2) Not all browsers can be called "browser".
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
Don't look at my project names[0], then... [0] https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY#here-on-github https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY#here-on-github
marcodiego 4y ago
I have to repost a comment: "I remember a friend of mine arguing prefixing names with g, q and k was a reason linux on the desktop failed. I asked "So, how do you explain the success of ipod, iphone, ipad and itunes?"" People complaining about influence of the name of a project on its success should publish unbiased statistics to base their arguments on.
executesorder66 4y ago
Agreed. More examples : - libpipi (why such a boring name for a library that I'm guessing helps you take a piss?) - libcaca (why such a boring name for a library that helps you take a shit?) - Thunar (what an utterly uninspired name for software that 100% accurately behaves like a Norse god) - Flameshot (Another fire shooting application with a boring name) - Zathura (I hate that from the name alone I can tell that I'm gonna be pulled into an intergalactic space adventure. Why not something random?)

tokai 4y ago

Its not a true HN thread about a FLOSS project without gall towards the name.

robert_foss 4y ago

libcamera isn't firmware for cameras. It's a userspace framework for enabling and abstracting away the terribleness of v4l2 & quirky hardware.

secondcoming 4y ago

On the upside, the name tells you what it is and does.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ttoinou 4y ago
Well, not really. It deals with a portion of what you need to build a camera, so which portion exactly is it ? And now if someone else creates another FLOSS camera library / toolkit they're going to call it libcam and we'll all get confused about who's who
- humanistbot 4y ago
  > And now if someone else creates another FLOSS camera library / toolkit they're going to call it libcam and we'll all get confused about who's who You identified a problem with ALL names. If someone developing a new library in the same general area (library for cameras) chops three letters off the end of an existing library to name their project, that is the second project's fault, not the first project's.
  - ttoinou 4y ago
    Well you need to think about the whole thing before coming up with a name. I don't care about blaming people here
    - humanistbot 4y ago
      > I don't care about blaming people here Says the person blaming the creators for their name.
      - ttoinou 4y ago
        I only said "I'm always surprised". I am wondering about this topic, and the replies are helpful

optymizer 4y ago

You should not be surprised. Choosing 'fun' names is subjective. This is a tool, not a disney ride. Not everything needs to trigger dopamine rushes and it's ok to have clear, straightforward names in software, seeing as naming things is hard.

palata 4y ago
Personally I don't want fun names, but I wish people used unique, writable, pronounceable names. Try to search for "camera" and see if you find this project. On the other hand, v4l2 is pretty unique. If all text editors are called "TextEditor", maybe the name says what it is, but the name is useless. For a company, you just use the company name ("Microsoft Word", assuming that the company name is unique enough), but for an open source project...
- arbitrage 4y ago
  Your argument is one heck of a strawman. Why on earth would you use a search engine to search for "camera" and be disappointed that libcamera didn't make the front page of your results? Searching for "lib camera", "libcamera", or "camera lib" returns this project as the top result.
  - palata 4y ago
    Sorry I meant it as a general comment for project names, not for this one in particular. And it is just my preference: given that "names that say what it does" don't really help me discriminate projects in general, I feel like "unique names" would be better. And if, like many company, a ton of money will be put into infinite brainstorming sessions by people with a good salary, I feel like maybe just going for a fun, unique name would be cheaper and not less effective. "Apple" does not return the fruit in the top results, but I wouldn't say it's a good name for a new project in 2022. Same for "word", I wouldn't advise you call your project like this, even if the top results are "Microsoft Word" and nothing related to the actual meaning of the word. I come from an industry where everyone uses the same prefixes/suffixes (related to the industry) together with names that "mean something". As a result, it's never really unique, and the only way to differentiate them is to always name them together with the company name. There is one in particular where the company name says what their product does, and it is similar to another product. For that one I _always_ need to Google it and go check the geographical location of both companies, because that's how I differentiate them: the names (and in this case the company name) do not help me.

deredede 4y ago

I love bland and uninspiring names. What's libcamera? A library for dealing with cameras, I'd wager. What's AXIOM? Not sure... My first guess would be a proof assistant. It's also not just FOSS, Apple for instance has many ThingKits(HealthKit, UIKit) but also TextEdit.

fnord123 4y ago
100% agree! Contrast with "Pokemon or Big Data" https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/ https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/
- mardifoufs 4y ago
  The same can be said about anything related to MLOps. The naming schemes are so out there but they all end up sounding similarly... generic. It's kind of weird really
Uehreka 4y ago
I don’t, and here’s why: If libcamera turns out to be a bust, then we’ve burnt that name. Now the next library will have to be called something like libeyeopener, and I’ll have to spend years telling people “although libcamera sounds like the ‘official’ camera library, the one you actually want is libeyeopener.” “Fanciful” names don’t squat on valuable namespace and allow different approaches to duke it out without one of them getting the advantage of sounding like the “official” one.
- deredede 4y ago
  If the libs are called Barracuda and Seagull you'll have to spend years telling people "although you have heard of Barracuda, the lib you want to use now is Seagull", I don't see that as very different. People don't make library choices based on the name only, they search for what is recommended online and look at examples/features/etc. I do concede that all else being equal people will gravitate towards the more "official" sounding library, but if all else's equal, it's not really an issue.
- 4y ago

fimdomeio 4y ago

Apple as creative names like. Mail, Pages, Numbers, Calendar, Photos... I actually think this is great for most users. What makes more sense for a user that knows very little about computers use an app called Mail to check the emails or one called Thunderbird. The only place where this convenience fails is for google searches.

palata 4y ago
"Is Numbers a calculator? Or an accounting app maybe?" "Is Calendar the one I just installed, or is it the one Apple is forcing me to use?" "Wait, so there is an app called Mail that I cannot remove, but my e-mail app is called Thunderbird? Let me note that." 1) People will learn the name of the apps they use, it's not that hard 2) Not all browsers can be called "browser".
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago

Don't look at my project names[0], then... [0] https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY#here-on-github https://github.com/ChrisMarshallNY#here-on-github

marcodiego 4y ago

I have to repost a comment: "I remember a friend of mine arguing prefixing names with g, q and k was a reason linux on the desktop failed. I asked "So, how do you explain the success of ipod, iphone, ipad and itunes?"" People complaining about influence of the name of a project on its success should publish unbiased statistics to base their arguments on.

executesorder66 4y ago

Agreed. More examples : - libpipi (why such a boring name for a library that I'm guessing helps you take a piss?) - libcaca (why such a boring name for a library that helps you take a shit?) - Thunar (what an utterly uninspired name for software that 100% accurately behaves like a Norse god) - Flameshot (Another fire shooting application with a boring name) - Zathura (I hate that from the name alone I can tell that I'm gonna be pulled into an intergalactic space adventure. Why not something random?)