2008/7/2 Craig Latta craig@netjam.org:
I think "String" is a much better name. Strings are composed of threads.
But the word "string" is so overloaded, especially in computer science.
It seemed to me that Igor was looking for a name that would evoke "multi-headedness", and "Hydra" certainly does that. I don't think it falls into the same category as names like "Zeus" or "Thor", which I assume were symptomatic of power fantasies with no further meaning. It's the lack of meaning that I see as the problem, I think the mythic quality is otherwise irrelevant.
Yeah, Hydra could (small)talk a lot faster, because it having many heads.
- there is no Spoon nor a fork, simply because Hydra swallowed them both :)
While were at it, though...
Smalltalk comes from Alan Kay's distaste for the kinds of names people were using for programming languages in the 60's & 70's, names like Zeus and Thor. Hence Smalltalk.
I think "Smalltalk" was a terrible choice. Pretty much everyone to whom
I've mentioned it thinks it's too long, and it immediately makes them think of annoying obligatory chit-chat, something they hate (as either speaker or listener).
I don't share your point here. A name is quite relevant to computing: if we going to talk with computers then to understand each other we need something in common - a language. Small language, which we can understand both and talk on it :)
And that's the most why i like smalltalk - it is small. It is inherently easy to learn and talk on it. Maybe there other language(s) which would make programmer's life as easy as smalltalk does. But i didn't met them yet in my life.
And how unfortunately ironic would it be to act with such deference to
an authority figure expressing his distaste for authority figures? :) I don't think we should treat Alan Kay like a god, either...
Oh, and Cog is a great name. :)
-C
-- Craig Latta improvisational musical informaticist www.netjam.org Smalltalkers do: [:it | All with: Class, (And love: it)]