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Poll: Should we rename Amber.js?
Yesterday, we announced that we were officially releasing what we had been calling SproutCore 2.0 as "Amber.js".
We did this because we had been using the name Amber as a public codename for over a year (see http://bit.ly/amber-announced), and had used it publicly for a while this year (see an update at http://bit.ly/amber-update and again when we announced TemplateView at http://bit.ly/amber-templateview).
Around the same time (March 2011), we also purchased the domain amberjs.com in anticipation of a rename later this year. During the summer, we internally came to the conclusion that we were going to stick with SproutCore 2.0 as the official name once we released, mostly leaving behind the name Amber as a codename for the project.
In September, JTalk, a Smalltalk implementation written in JavaScript, decided to rename and use the name Amber for their project. As we are not Smalltalk enthusiasts, we did not notice this change (even though it was featured on Hacker News, which we frequent[1]).
Last month, we realized that our goals had diverged sufficiently from the original SproutCore that the similarity of the names was causing mass confusion. We decided to go ahead with the original plan to rename "SproutCore 2.0" to "Amber". It was made especially problematic when a number of existing SproutCore users wanted to continue developing the SproutCore 1.x branch, which only caused additional confusion.
Because we had been casually using the name Amber in public for so long, we didn't do the thorough research we would normally have done while naming a project. Once we launched, a number of people brought Amber Smalltalk to our attention, and we frankly feel sheepish about the whole thing.
We are still planning on launching the website and docs this weekend, so we'd like to make a decision and get this behind us as soon as we can.
So what should we do?
If you think we should rename, we would love some suggestions. Please post your ideas in the comments.
[1] It's possible we missed it because Tom decided to try and improve his "productivity" by messing with his /etc/hosts file to ban Hacker News. It didn't last long.
- geddesign 15y agoHow about EmberJS ? Domain name is available, it's similar to AmberJS but a little cooler.
- stefri 15y agoStick with "Amber.js". Everything else would be more confusing as it is already ... and it's short! I like it :)
- sjce 15y agoIt is a bad name for Googleing. Just like Gemstone for another smalltalk, b.t.w.
- evjan 15y agoSuggestions: peach.js, honey.js and cloudberry.js I am hungry, in case you were wondering.
- ryanstout 15y agochange the name: hammer.js is my suggestion.
- arbales 15y agoAh, no biggie. Go Ahead and run with Amber.js, launch your site and updates your namespaces. I doubt they'll be any toe-trampling confusion. At most there'd be one or two feathers ruffled, but we're all intelligent adults, and its totally cool to share the name. Sharing /is/ caring after all.
- grayrest 15y agoIt'll be fine as long as you keep the beer vs gemstone distinction. ;)
- bascule 15y agoIf you were to pick a different name to avoid overlap with Amber Smalltalk, I'd recommend substrate.js. It conveys a fundamental organizing principle in the same way "backbone" does, and best of all it starts with 's' so all the SCs all over the place will still halfway make sense.
- cjfont 15y agoWe need to leave some namespace for all the future MVC frameworks to come =P
- iotashan 15y agoI would sunset SproutCore 1.0, and let the community members who want to continue development fork it & rename the fork. Then use SproutCore 2.0 for the new codebase.
- steipete 15y agoI just searched for "Amber" on Google, and the first 5 (!) pages didn't show me anything even remotely Smalltalk-related. I didn't looked any further. Stick with Amber.js.
- KuraFire 15y agoCall it Jamboree.js !
- railsjedi 15y agoDepends... is Amber still affiliated with Sproutcore at all? If so, something like Sproutcore Slim would be cool Of course, all the good names are taken: http://slim-lang.com/ http://slim-lang.com/
- wycats 15y agoAmber is not affiliated with SproutCore at all anymore.
- nathanvda 15y agoThe name is not Amber, but Amber.js, which for me is clearly a js framework and as a whole a good, unique name. I do not think there will be a lot of confusion. Also I do think that moving away from Sproutcore is a good choice, because when I talked with fellow rubyists about Sproutcore, I always ment Sproutcore 2.0, but this always caused confusion because people always had 1.0 in mind (it is huge, too much, ... which it is not).
- sjce 15y agoYou haven't taken a look at Amber, have you? It is also a javascript framework
- maxdemarzi 15y agoRename it something with an Endoskeleton theme: "terminator.js" "arnold.js" "t-1000.js"
- smathy 15y agoYou should call the 2.0 "SproutCore" and you should change the 1.0 to "SproutUI" or "SproutWidgets" or something.
- ofd 15y agoAlthough I think 'substrate' is a cool name, it's already taken in GitHub.
- abhishivsaxena 15y agoI think you should consult the Amber Smalltalk people If they agree to a linkback, great. Going ahead with amber.js without their consent would be morally grey.
- wycats 15y agoWe emailed them immediately once we realized and they (of course) said they would prefer if we rename to something else. Because we had been using the name publicly for so long, we decided to lay out the relevant details and ask Hacker News.
- arbales 15y agoIf you've been using it and its comfy, just stick with it. People will just care about the code anyway.
- aviflombaum 15y agoWhat about resin?
- psteininger 15y agoThat's a name of a Java App Server, not sure if the connection is desirable
- JGailor 15y agoWhen I first heard this, all I could think about was "Amber Alert".
- igorgue 15y agoI like Amber, SproutCore was always hard to pronounce (I'm foreign) or to talk about.
- lukeholder 15y agoambert.js amberlite.js amberlin.js amberjack.js ambers.js embers.js
- warthogkernel 15y agoCall it Milamber.js Points for guessing the reference.
- wycats 15y agoGuessing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_(fictional_character) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_(fictional_character) :P
- warthogkernel 15y agoCorrect. =)
- jlbenc 15y agoLager.js
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- fufulabs 15y agoName it something related to its core vision/goal/function. Anything to make products self-explanatory is always an advantage.
- joshsusser 15y agoHow about Spore.js? It's a nice contraction of SproutCore, and doesn't sound as silly as the spoonerism KrautSpore :)
- tuhtah 15y agoHere are 2 naming suggestions following the cabbage theme for your inspiration: ;) Brocco.js Brussels.js
- Detrus 15y agoSproutCore was a nice name, Amber doesn't have the same ring to it. Maybe Sprouts? SproutFrame?
- jeremychone 15y agoIf you rename amber, please, do not rename it brite or bright, as I have already a project with solving the same problematic (with a different approach). https://github.com/jeremychone/brite https://github.com/jeremychone/brite I am going to push brite quite a bit next year.
- Rajiv_N 15y agoIs the SC namespace going to stay or is the code going to be refactored (ex: SC.Object becomes A.Object)? Just curious. For the name, how about dotbind.js :)? (I LOVE SC.Binding)
- pdebruic 15y agorename it to porter.js porters are delicious beers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_%28beer%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_%28beer%29) and porters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_%28carrier%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_%28carrier%29 , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_%28railroad%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_%28railroad%29) help everyone get things done.
- recusancy 15y agoAnd porter beers usually have coffee (java) flavors.
- maercsrats 15y agobikeshed.js? There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. -- Phil Karlton
- missingm 15y agoIf you "feel sheepish about the whole thing" isn't the right thing to do pretty clear?
- bts 15y agoI think he means that they feel sheepish about not having done more research about the name "Amber" before the announcement.
- Ancient 15y agosuggest: Sprouts.js
- jasonshell 15y agoIf you end up changing the name (don't think you should), how about honeycomb.js Brings thoughts of structure, order and productivity.
- sjce 15y agoInternal version codenames are not recognizable, and are not expected to be used like this (www.macosxlion.com?) With hindsight, there should have been a site at amberjs.com.
- andyl 15y agoKeep the amber letters, but rearrange. (an anagram) Candidates include: merba.js, ebarm.js, rabem.js, etc.
- blacktiger 15y agomerba.js would be kind of funny since @wycats was on the merb team.
- dgeb 15y agoOrbit.js I just registered orbitjs.com but would be willing to donate it. I think the name is a good fit for a framework that aims to keep so many objects moving effortlessly around each other. Contact me (@dgeb) if you're interested.
- uipoet 15y agoBinder.js
- ZuLuuuuuu 15y agoAmber Smalltalk is a pretty popular and alive JavaScript project so I vote for renaming.
- Stratego 15y agoDon't just come up with a name. Find a meaning, and let a name emerge from that meaning. What is your purpose?
- x1r0 15y agoCore.js
- drenovac 15y ago1. why not take translate.google.com and see what amber is in some other language which still sounds neat in English. 2.look through the thesaurus for suitable alternatives. 3.Or why not take something from the names of the 3 amigos who are graciously taking it upon themselves to get this great framwork and community happening.
- akash8m 15y agoI am an user not familiar with the software, but I think you should leave Amber to Amber Alert and use a different name.
- psteininger 15y agoWhat about Ausum.js (pronounced awesome) Other idea: Sauce.js (you can keep the same namespace if you remove the vowels)
- davej 15y agoI definitely like the idea of keeping the namespace. Sauce.js sounds a bit like a utility library (i.e. underscore.js/Sugar.js) rather than an MVC framework to me though.
- redtexture 15y agoAmberCore.js
- tiamat 15y agoscamber.js
- abrown28 15y agoThe name Amber dredges up some unfortunate memories for me :(
- ricardobeat 15y agoDr. House?
- psteininger 15y agoI had another idea... continuing the recent naming after tea names (Sencha, Ceylon - new Java-like language), perhaps Assam, Mate(vana) or Lampsang
- neldoreth 15y agoastrolabe.js - ("star-taker") an ancien navigation instrument. Good for googling and seems fairly unused in the programming world.
- mrinterweb 15y agoI am glad to see the naming change. SproutCore and SproutCore 2 seem to have very different goals and very different approaches. People had preconceptions of what SproutCore 2 was based on their knowledge of SproutCore. I see that Ember.js, http://emberjs.com http://emberjs.com, appears to be the final name. Ember.js is a great name and I think the rebranding makes a lot of sense.