Steve Holden wrote: > The trepidation was accounted for solely by a concern that Python would > become involved in any kind of religious controversy, or that someone of > extreme views might claim that Python was associated with, or against, a > particular religious belief.
I'm sure there are a number of places where people without extreme views react strongly to christian symbols--whether the reasons for this are well founded or not. ASEA, the A-part of the ABB group, stopped using their old logo in 1933. They realized that what used to be a symbol for electrical motors in schematic diagrams had become associated with something entirely different. In 1933 the general opinion on nazis weren't nearly as negative as it is now, but whatever you thought about politics, ASEA's old logo no longer gave the right associations to people. On the other hand, people on Bali don't seem to worry a bit about the swastikas on their shrines and temples. Different context. We can obviously argue on how much we should worry about the assocations people in various corners of thge world get, whatever we intended. In Sweden, the python snake has for some reason become associated with bad smells. (I think it was Pippi Longstocking who used an expresion that got stuck in the souls of the Swedes--it's all Astrid Lindgren's fault.) I don't expect Guido to rename Python for that reason (Monty would feel fairly neutral in Sweden), but it sometimes seem to be a disadvantage. I think some people I've tried to convince would have been more impressed if Python had been called XYZ or whatever... Here at work, our conference rooms are named after old norse gods, and the new room that was named Vile, was rapidly renamed Vili, when people thought about the meaning of "vile" in English. Actually, considering the status snakes have in christian tradition, I guess you could claim that the snakes neutralize the cross! Personally, I think it looks more like plus sign than like a cross. > Quite apart from the fact that language > choice should not be a religious issue (:-), you are correct in saying > that we must be mindful of sensitivities; as I mentioned, the outline of > the logo hasn't been raised in the year since it was first mooted. I > hope this doesn't mean we need *two* Python logos! It's probably possible to make a Python logo that doesn't look like any religious symbol. I think the plus sign shaped logo had some advantages though. It's not very pretty, but it's simple and a plus is something positive, something that adds value... -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
