On 2015-09-17 at 15:04, Robert Edmonds wrote:
> Wookey wrote:
>
>> +++ Raphael Hertzog [2015-09-17 14:41 +0200]:
>>> Please don't call this feature "Bikesheds" and don't hardcode
>>> this naming in the suggested API. It was funny during one Debconf
>>> talk... but it won't be funny in the long term.
>>
>> It wasn't supposed to be a joke. Bikeshed is an appropriate name,
>> in the unix tradition of mildly amusing/punny names.
>
> Which tradition would that be?
>
> Out of the few hundred or so Unix [0] and GNU [1] commands listed on
> Wikipedia, the only vaguely amusing/punning names I can find are tac
> ("cat" backwards) and pinky (a lightweight "finger").
There's also nano; it's named for similarity to pico, which I believe
was named as a shortening of "pine composer". pine in its turn was (I
believe) named for similarity to elm, which was an abbreviation for
something I forget. Both the names pine and nano are "amusing/punny" in
that sense.
Also, the GIMP is a play on words of its own - and for that matter, the
recursive acronym "GNU" is a similar piece of wordplay.
I concur that this sort of wordplay in naming is a *nix tradition;
however, I withhold comment as to whether the name "bikeshed" is
appropriate in this case, as the first I remember hearing about them is
this thread and I don't know enough about the context to form a
defensible opinion.
--
The Wanderer
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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