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It is also very likely (if not definitely known) that the name was chosen at least in part because of the English meaning of the word, making the "people have n
by deredede 2y ago
It is also very likely (if not definitely known) that the name was chosen at least in part because of the English meaning of the word, making the "people have no idea what the word means" argument moot.
Outside of France, most users of Coq are in the US where it is taught in many universities. I am sure there were no female professors or TA whose job was made harder purely due to being "the coq teacher" (this is sarcastic, multiple such professors and TAs have mentioned having this type of issues on the Coq mailing list).
- hurutparittya 2y agoOh no, giggling students! Someone do something, quick! I can only imagine the horror.
- cccbbbaaa 2y agoThis is what happens in french classrooms when you talk about bits :-)
- littlestymaar 2y agoDon't forget strings.
- hiddencost 2y agoReminds me of renaming NeurIPS. Another change we're better for.
- baq 2y agoSo teachers complain on the mailing list instead of telling the students to grow the f* up. I don't doubt this is true, but I question the worth of complaints.
- deredede 2y agoYou are assuming a lot here: as far as I remember, someone proposed a name change, then these accounts came up supporting the change. It's not like people were complaining left and right on the mailing lists, but when the opportunity arose to fix once and for all a problem they had, they spoke in favor. And in my opinion multiple such accounts coming up are a good reason to proceed with a name change: the problem shows up as a pattern rather than isolated incidents, and a reasonable fix is identified.
- saagarjha 2y agoOk, but you claimed otherwise in your parent comment.
- rugina 2y agoThe English word bit has the same meaning in French as word Coq has in English.
- deredede 2y agoI am French, I know :) But in my experience this simply causes some giggling in the classroom for a few days and that's it, which is not the experience I have seen recounted regarding Coq in the US. There are multiple differences between these cases: - The word "bit" is mostly used when speaking English, not in a French sentence (we use "octet" - I don't know the history here but I wouldn't be surprised that this is specifically because of the French meaning of "bit"). Coq, being the name of the tool, is used as-is in English sentences. [This is wrong, I somehow confused bit and byte here] - Even when used in a French sentence, the gender is different ("un bit" vs "une bite"), removing ambiguity - Bits are just one fraction of the curriculum, not the name of the tool used in every single lesson of the course I will refrain from commenting further on this topic, as it has been rehashed many times already and distracts from the work on rust-to-coq translation.
- croemer 2y agoAre you sure? I'm not French but according to French wikipedia "octet" means "byte" not "bit": https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet
- deredede 2y agoSorry, you are right of course! I somehow confused bit and byte, I have updated my comment. Thanks for pointing that out.
- littlestymaar 2y agoDo you know what a «string» means in French? Or a «bite» (which is pronounced exactly like “bit”). If not, look that up. And besides lame jokes when 14 years old hear it for the first time (both male and female, btw), it's fine. It's essentially a problem of American puritanism (and likely also a problem of misogyny among students, but the solution to that really isn't to change the project name!)