The Naming
Written by Lucy Black   
Sunday, 26 May 2013

This week's xkcd cartoon is a warning for any project about selecting cool sounding names. Yes, open source, I'm talking to you!

If you select a name in a series, and yes programmers like enumerations, then you have to estimate how long it will last - and no matter how long it is, if it isn't infinity then it isn't long enough.

Yes, IP4 address, I'm taking to you!

You may have thought that 232 was enough addresses for everyone - but you were wrong. And don't get smug IP6. The one certainty in life is that in a few years 2128 will look just as inadequate. 

 

mountainlionOSX

 

So what was Apple doing when it started on a series of cat names for their OS? Did it think there were enough cat species with cool sounding names to supply the number of OS versions going off into the, hopefully almost infinite future? 

 Felidae

 More cartoon fun at xkcd a webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language

 

So what next? Will we have to put up with less than cool names?

What about OS X Tabby or OSX Moggy? 

 

MoggySX

 

So who has the biggest problem, Eclipse? OSX, Ubuntu? --- any other contenders?

 

More Information

xkcd

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 26 May 2013 )