On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 13:40:10 -0800 (PST), "Russ P." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Dec 1, 12:47 pm, "J. Clifford Dyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> On Sat, 2007-12-01 at 12:10 -0800, Russ P. wrote: >> > On Dec 1, 2:10 am, Bjoern Schliessmann <usenet- >> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > > Russ P. wrote: >> > > > I agree that Python is not a good name for a programming language, >> >> > > Why not? >> >> > Think about proposing its use to someone who has never heard of it >> > (which I did not too long ago). As the OP pointed out, a Python is a >> > snake. Why should a programming language be named after a snake? >> >> That's not a persuasive argument. >> >> First of all, Python is named for a comedy troupe from England. For >> comparison, Perl is named for a knitting technique, Lisp is named for a >> speech impediment, Ruby is named for a rock, Smalltalk is named for a >> not-so-useful form of communication, and Java is named after a beverage >> or an island. >> >> Which of those is a good name for a programming language by your >> criterion? > >None. None of them are good names by my criteria. But then, a name is >only a name. One of the few names I like is Pascal, because he was a >great mathematician and scientist. > >After thinking about it a bit, here are examples of what I would >consider a good name for a programming language: > >Newton# >Newton* >Newton+ > >Newton was a great scientist, and his name is easy to spell and >pronounce. The trailing character serves to disambiguate it from >Newton in online searches. For shorthand in online discussions, N#, >N*, or N+ could be used as aliases. > >Names of other great scientists, mathematicians, or computer >scientists could also be used, of course. Take your pick. > >How about renaming Python3000? I would never use the name of a mathematician for a procedural language. Mathemathician names should be for funtional languages (such as Haskell). Procedural languages are flexible, they keep on tangling and getting out of it, they like publicity: Houdini or, as suggested in other messages: Houdini3 Best regards, Zara -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list