Re: Why does Debian have code names for releases?
On Sun 02 Jul 2023 at 12:08:27 (-0400), Stefan Monnier wrote:
> >> > Unlike numbers, names are memorable and unambiguous (when well-chosen).
> >> This claim is far from evident and needs justification. The only
> [...]
> > Leaving aside that Titanic is the real name of the ship and not a
> > codename, the evidence is all around you. Look no further than
> > your login name, or the name of your computer. A huge slice of the
> > Internet's infrastructure, DNS, is concerned with allowing people
> > to converse with memorable names rather than anonymous numbers.
>
> Anecdotal evidence cuts both ways: how many years have names rather
> than numbers?
One way of looking at this, for Anglophones:
Every year has a name: it looks like the number of the year when
written, but it's pronounced differently: for example, 1968,
pronounced "nineteen sixtyeight". Convention dictates that the year
is never written grouped, like 1,968, but is pronounced almost
universally grouped into (unspoken) hundreds. One wouldn't say
"one thousand and sixtyeight" (or "one thousand sixtyeight" in
American).
Exceptionally, the names of the years in the opening decade of this
century haven't yet settled. Perhaps they never will until people
alive at the time are all dead.
> Numbers can be easier to remember in some cases, and names in others.
Perhaps more people remember the A5 is the Holyhead Road, rather than
the name Watling Street, unless you live in Milton Keynes, where it's
also the V4. And MK is one place where you might think you remember
the road numbers better than their names, but really you're just
counting. There's a V9, which I must have driven on, if only to park
in Downs Barn and dodge the fees in Central MK, but I don't have a
clue what it's called, as most of it doesn't exist. That which does
lies between Marlborough St (V8) and Brickhill St (V10), both of
which I knew well, over two decades ago.
And now I'm rambling 'cause I'm stuck: I'm not sure why I'm the one
having to think up examples.
Cheers,
David.
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