Names of Squeaky Things

Dan Ingalls Dan.Ingalls at disney.com
Fri Nov 12 18:10:49 UTC 1999


John-Reed -

>This naming thing still has be a bit confused. Squeak has somehow
>come to be associated with a mouse (an association which predates
>Disney?) and no one has yet offered a reliable explanation of how the
>name came to be applied to this particular dialect of Smalltalk.

We'll never tell.

>My current guess is that a squeak is what small talk sounds like in
>the real world when it is speeded up tremendously - I learned this
>in an episode of Startrek;)

Aha.  So we should find out what just-in-time-compiler or
native-code-translator sound like when sped up.

>So is the elemental naming metaphor for Squeaky things mice and/or
>the rodentia in general or should it be some other grand concept?

For now, we need a name and we've got a name.  When we get where we're going (and we're certainly not there yet), I think we'll find a better name.  That being so, I don't think we need to build on the rodent theme.  BitBlt is hard to pronounce, but that doesn't mean the major primitives have to be tongue-twisters.

>For the record, my wife finds it hard to believe that I am doing
>serious work when I am Squeaking.

That's a good one.  It's even worse for me -- she KNOWS I'm having fun.  There are chores to be done, and I say "I've got some work to do."  Cartoons on the screen.  Weird music coming out of the study.  Yeah, right.  At least it doesn't smell funny ;-).

	- D





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