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The Best Name Ever for a Computer Language
- jere 13y agoMaybe it's because I've been watching too much Justified, but I really liked hearing the "Harlan" announcement.
- yorhel 13y agoAgree with the article; Linda is great, both the name and the project. It was one of the more interesting topics of a Distributed Systems course that I followed, but I never ended up using it (or its concepts) in practice due to the performance overhead. As a nitpick: Perl is originally not an acronym, the language used to be called "Pearl". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#Name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl#Name
- snowwrestler 13y agoNo mention of TCL, pronounced "tickle"? This was the scripting language used in the ArsDigita Community System, one of the first commercially available platforms for database-backed websites.
- VLM 13y agoThis is a good point, that some languages cross barriers. Tool Control Language is just another acronym, but "tickle" is a funny one.
- reeses 13y agoThere are a number of TCLs (usually job control shells similar to JCL/DCL/etc.) but for some reason they never get called "tickle" the way Tcl does.
- frankcaron 13y agoI've always been partial to "Lua". It's as fun say as it is to work with.
- omegote 13y ago> So a successor language to C was C++ (Like C, but a bit better) C++ is not a bit better than C. It's a whole lot better (for most situations, that is).
- omegote 13y agoNow that I see it, it'd not be "a bit better", but "4 bytes better".
- gjm11 13y agoOf course, in C, "C++" actually means "add 1 to C, and then use the old value". (After executing C=3; D=C++; the value of D is 3, not 4.)
- Roboprog 13y agoYep, and I bet you've maintained that project as well: "//" comments, and that's about it.
- _pmf_ 13y ago> A reworking of C++ became D Hey, this is pretty offensive! D is a clean and nice language, compared to the comparatively train-wrecky C++.
- ginko 13y ago> There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.
- nhebb 13y agoI personally like that PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page. Love it or hate, it's pretty cool that a language with such humble roots rose to such widespread use.
- GotAnyMegadeth 13y agoI'm currently designing a Hardware Description Language. I'm probably going to call it Vee, because it's main competitors are VHDL and Verilog HDL, which have the same acronym. So mine will be VeeHDL. I'll HN it when it get nearer to completion. PS I am aware no one says Verilog HDL...
- reeses 13y agoWhen you release it, if it is good, I will curse your name (hah) when I try to google for information and get back 10,000,000 near misses.
- gjm11 13y agoThe page says, about C#, > C#, which is also a musical note one semitone higher than C. Which is true enough, but am I the only person to think that the original idea must surely have been to signify "(C++)++", with the two "++"es one on top of the other? (See: http://imgur.com/8On6Stn http://imgur.com/8On6Stn) [EDIT: Thanks, wtetzner: apparently Anders Hejlsberg had the good taste to agree with me :-).]
- wtetzner 13y agohttp://www.donnfelker.com/how-did-c-get-its-name/ http://www.donnfelker.com/how-did-c-get-its-name/
- evincarofautumn 13y agoIf you like your Unicode: C⁺̟⁺̟
- fbomb 13y agoof course a C-sharp is equivalent to a D-flat :-)
- max_wall_2000 13y agoTech has a misogyny problem? No way. > It took some years for me to realise that Linda was named after the porn star Linda Lovelace. It was a subtle joke and allusion to Ada by the language's designers Try and read this and then explain how this is an appropriate "subtle joke", "allusion to Ada [Lovelace]" and "best name ever for a computer language": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Lovelace#Charges_against_Chuck_Traynor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Lovelace#Charges_against...
- njharman 13y agoOnly misogynists have problems with porn or pornstars.
- SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago> Only misogynists have problems with porn or pornstars. Debatable but not actually relevant: This is about bringing "porn or pornstars" into an everyday work context, not about them as a thing in itself. I would rather say that "Only misogynists have problems with keeping porn out of programming languages".
- max_wall_2000 13y agoDid you read the linked article? Linda Boreman/Lovelace was forced into pornography at gunpoint, abused, raped and forced into prostitution. Only misogynists have no problem with that, or with joking about it, whether at work or elsewhere.
- CodeMage 13y agosigh I know I shouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole, but I really don't think overreactions like these help anyone. First of all, sexist jokes are a bad thing, but we need to keep in mind the meaning of the word "misogyny": hatred of women. While sexist jokes desensitize men to sexism in general, which can lead to misogyny, the knee-jerk reaction you're having is beginning to resemble crying wolf. As for the name Linda, it is a clever reference to a person who shares the same surname as the person for which another programming language is named. No doubt the choice of the person was motivated by that person's fame and no doubt that choice was immature, unprofessional and sexist. Likewise, calling it a "best name ever for a computer language" is probably equally immature and unprofessional. But the fact is that the reference really is clever and a subtle joke. I agree with you that it's not appropriate, but it's not really the reason to cry "misogyny". Criticizing the OP for being childish, unprofessional and sexist would have been enough without trying to demonize him.
- jwarren 13y agoWhat exactly is so brilliant about naming a programming language after a porn star, especially one famous subjected to sexual abuse? How on earth is it a "subtle reference" to Ada Lovelace? What do they have in common, apart from both being women? I don't understand the premise for this article.
- JulianMorrison 13y agoThey have a surname in common, it seems. The article calls Linda a porn star, but she became an anti-porn activist. I call sexism on the article for childishly thinking that loose association with sex makes something "best ever", and double sexism for failing to acknowledge her choice to stop.
- minikomi 13y agoI heard that the perl name also is an allusion to it being found primarily within the shell.
- gnuvince 13y agoClojure is probably one of my favorite language name ever; it's an homonym of an extremely important concept in the language, the 'j' in the name refers to the Java/JVM ecosystem and it's very easy to google for.
- moomin 13y ago"BODOL" is pretty funny.