On Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 8:56 AM, Christopher Howard <chow...@indicium.us> wrote: > Alexia Death wrote: >> On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 12:40 PM, David Gowers <00a...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 9:43 AM, Brendan <mailingl...@endosquid.com> wrote: >>> A list of files that would need modification: >>> ... SINP LONG LIST... >> >> And all of GIMP code. 98% functions are prefixed as gimp. You can try >> to grep for gimp on gimp source tree. Forget it. Some English speakers >> discomfort at the name is getting a bit ridiculous IMHO. >> >> > > A note: The end users don't care what the functions are called. Just the > name of the binary, the logo, and the title bar.
That's sort of beside the point. Having the developers see things differently than the users disincentivizes people to be both users and developers (which is definitely the optimal choice for ongoing improvement of software quality). If the program is called imp but all the functions are gimp_, that introduces cognitive dissonance (which amounts to confusion+annoyance in this case) which discourages the users from developing. > > The discomfort at the name for me has nothing to do with some moral > objection. Its about having a product you aren't afraid to advertise. > When I start extolling the virtues of open source to my buddies, one of > the first three objections I usually get are "but there is no good > graphics software like Photoshop." As soon as I say "GIMP," you can see > the doubt on their faces, because they associate the word with being > weak or lame. > > If Mozilla's browser today was name "Mozilla Slug," or "Bloat Browser," > how many people do think would be wearing the tee-shirt or showing off > the desktop wallpaper? The difference being that slug or bloat are not narrowly-scoped cultural references: almost everyone knows what a slug is, and a majority of computer users end up understanding what bloat is. By comparison, the first time I heard of gimp meaning anything -- except, well, the program we're talking about! .. was a thread here about this very same subject. Others have expressed similar sentiments. You're acting like 'gimp' is a universal English cultural artefact. It's not (it's mainly an American one). It seems to me that such threads simply manufacture means of objection for trolls who don't want to adopt something new, because it's new. _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list Gimp-developer@lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
