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Yeah I clicked here thinking this would be an interesting story about why macarons are so popular these days or something. When I saw a code block I closed imm

Yeah I clicked here thinking this would be an interesting story about why macarons are so popular these days or something. When I saw a code block I closed immediately. I'm a programmer but I don't care about every random, poorly-named library or framework that exists.

apetresc 3y ago
To be fair, it's not a library or framework, it's a format for certain types of security tokens. They're kind of like fancier cookies, hence the name "macaroon". Not so poorly-named, in my opinion (to the extent that "cookies" was ever a sensible name). Just the right level of whimsy while still calling back to what they are.
- bbarn 3y ago
  A macaroon is a mixed up ball of coconut and egg whites. A macaron is the delicious fancy sandwich cookie.
  - dataflow 3y ago
    And for completeness, a Macron is the president.
    - amenghra 3y ago
      Not to be confused with micron, which is the size of most politicians’ accomplishments after they get elected.
    - rsynnott 3y ago
      This is an obscure form of nominative determinism. Biscuits tend to be named after French leadership (eg Bourbon, Napoleon, etc), thus obviously someone whose name is nearly a biscuit should become leader of France. (There are also Garibaldi biscuits, which would at first seem to dilute the theory... but he was born in France!)
  - amenghra 3y ago
    Referer/referrer, macaron/macaroon, the web isn’t good with typos…
  - BobaFloutist 3y ago
    And macaroni is a kind of pasta. Make it make sense.
- patja 3y ago
  It is an oddly specific choice to use the word macaroon for this, given the widespread confusion over macaron vs. macaroon and how many other unambiguous variants of "cookie" are available for naming a piece of software that is a newer fancier cookie. I do not accept Wikipedia's milquetoast concession to call a macaron a "French macaroon". Was it intentionally named as an allusion to this confusion? Software is full of hand-wringing over naming and the importance of naming. Is it supposed to be a kind of cookie that is often mistaken for a different cookie? Or is this just another referer, a mistake that has been accepted as canon. Referer has the benefit of not being a real word at all though, so is less confusing.
  - jpolitz 3y ago
    As far as I remember (maybe Arnar or Úlfar or another of the authors would have a different memory, though) we just wanted a “cool cookie” name. We knew about the -oon/-on distinction and liked the sound of -oon. I view it as a mild plus that the confusion around the name has educated so many about confectionery taxonomies.
- Tade0 3y ago
  If you type a name in your search engine of choice and the intended link is not on the first page of results, then that name might not be the best.

apetresc 3y ago

To be fair, it's not a library or framework, it's a format for certain types of security tokens. They're kind of like fancier cookies, hence the name "macaroon". Not so poorly-named, in my opinion (to the extent that "cookies" was ever a sensible name). Just the right level of whimsy while still calling back to what they are.

bbarn 3y ago
A macaroon is a mixed up ball of coconut and egg whites. A macaron is the delicious fancy sandwich cookie.
- dataflow 3y ago
  And for completeness, a Macron is the president.
  - amenghra 3y ago
    Not to be confused with micron, which is the size of most politicians’ accomplishments after they get elected.
  - rsynnott 3y ago
    This is an obscure form of nominative determinism. Biscuits tend to be named after French leadership (eg Bourbon, Napoleon, etc), thus obviously someone whose name is nearly a biscuit should become leader of France. (There are also Garibaldi biscuits, which would at first seem to dilute the theory... but he was born in France!)
- amenghra 3y ago
  Referer/referrer, macaron/macaroon, the web isn’t good with typos…
- BobaFloutist 3y ago
  And macaroni is a kind of pasta. Make it make sense.
patja 3y ago
It is an oddly specific choice to use the word macaroon for this, given the widespread confusion over macaron vs. macaroon and how many other unambiguous variants of "cookie" are available for naming a piece of software that is a newer fancier cookie. I do not accept Wikipedia's milquetoast concession to call a macaron a "French macaroon". Was it intentionally named as an allusion to this confusion? Software is full of hand-wringing over naming and the importance of naming. Is it supposed to be a kind of cookie that is often mistaken for a different cookie? Or is this just another referer, a mistake that has been accepted as canon. Referer has the benefit of not being a real word at all though, so is less confusing.
- jpolitz 3y ago
  As far as I remember (maybe Arnar or Úlfar or another of the authors would have a different memory, though) we just wanted a “cool cookie” name. We knew about the -oon/-on distinction and liked the sound of -oon. I view it as a mild plus that the confusion around the name has educated so many about confectionery taxonomies.
Tade0 3y ago
If you type a name in your search engine of choice and the intended link is not on the first page of results, then that name might not be the best.