Tarek Ziadé <[email protected]> writes: > Ok so everyone agrees [“Distribute” is] a bad name for many good > reasons :) > > I am changing to setuptools2 then.
You've stated that you don't really care what the name is. Thank you for stating that opinion clearly. Acknowledging the risk of endless bike-shedding, I wish to disagree: choosing a good name is very important. Analogous to the name of a function or variable in our program code, a project name is the only chance we have at initial communication with potential users. Unlike identifiers in program code, the name of a project, once it becomes established, is extremely difficult to change later. A good name for a software project is typified as much by things to avoid as much as things to aim for: * The name should avoid unnecessary implication that this is “the next version” of Setuptools. This is a fork, and should be named to make the distinction between the projects clear. * The name should at least hint at the purpose of the software. It doesn't need to encapsulate the purpose directly, and that's almost impossible for most software — especially when choosing a name for a fork that does essentially the same job. But it does need to make the association relatively easy to make in a newcomer's mind. * The name should be easy to spell, search, and speak. That is, it should be formed by well-known orthographic rules (of English, probably, or some other common language), it should have a good chance of leading quickly to the project when typing a query string of “python name_of_the_project”, and it should be fairly unambiguous in spelling when spoken aloud. * Corrollaries of the above: the name should be relatively short and relatively unique among software projects. That's a lot to ask of a simple identifier, but I'm convinced those are all necessary for a name to be a good one. I never said choosing a good name was easy :-) Examples of ways to get a good name, by no means exhaustive, with selected examples of using that way to get a good name: * A short word that has a clever acronym expansion for the project. Remember that an acronym is a *pronounceable* word (otherwise it's just an initialism :-) Example: “pip”. * A word in a non-English language that is nevertheless easy for Anglophiles to spell and speak. Bonus points if the word has an indirect association to the project purpose. Example: “midori”. * The (easily-spelled-and-spoken) name of an animal, plant, or other natural phenomenon with properties that can be easily associated with the project purpose. Example: “ferret”. * An obscure (yet easily-spelled-and-spoken) English word whose meaning has a clever association with the project purpose. Example: “perdition”. * Obviously, there are others. How's that? -- \ “Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?” “I think so, | `\ Brain, but shouldn't the bat boy be wearing a cape?” —_Pinky | _o__) and The Brain_ | Ben Finney _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - [email protected] http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
