Software Naming Discussions

Users debate the origins, appropriateness, and alternatives for names of software tools, programming languages, and projects, often critiquing confusing or off-putting choices like GIMP or similarities to existing tools.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Open Source
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#1156
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Keywords

REP REPL ROS x.y THE HN IS GIMP SDK NIS called language renamed internal codec alice acronym software tool names

Sample Comments

phreeza Apr 29, 2024 View on HN

Is the name a riff on a similar google-internal tool?

m463 May 30, 2020 View on HN

That is an interesting name for a tool. wonder where it came from?

chfritz Jul 3, 2024 View on HN

Cool! Does the name derive from pair-programming, is that the main intent?

atarian Nov 18, 2020 View on HN

Good thing we don't pick our tech stack just based on how the name sounds... right?

BoredPositron Jun 13, 2024 View on HN

I guess there wasn't a better name, maybe even one which wasn't associated with some other software for decades...

dontlaugh Nov 24, 2023 View on HN

I'm continuously surprised it doesn't get renamed to GNU Imp.

matthewtse Sep 7, 2023 View on HN

Haha agreed, the name is very off-putting. I was sort of expecting an explainer and a clever quip for the name in the GitHub documentation, but didn't find one.There are definitely many other names for an "all-purpose" tool.

0xdeadbeefbabe Jan 7, 2025 View on HN

I like the name. It's the SDK that gives the name meaning anyway.

roadbeats Jan 11, 2019 View on HN

I didn't mean to be pedantic. Any name that refers to the software is fine.

alex_lav Sep 24, 2023 View on HN

Maybe not an awesome name for a new tool in the infra/devops/cloud space