rtilley wrote: > Steve Holden wrote: > >> Doug Bromley wrote: >> >>> I can see Ruby overtaking Python if we don't ALL do something about it. > > > I think it's the name. Python. Let's change it to something nicer. Think > about it... if you found a Ruby, you'd pick it up and put it in your > pocket. If you ran across a Python, you'd run away.
I think you have a point, but I also think it's a bit late to change it after 15 years or so, considering all books, web sites etc. We're stuck with Python, and can only do the best of that. Actually, in Swedish, "Jag mår pyton" i.e. "I feel like python" means "I feel sick", and "det luktar pyton" i.e. "it smells python", means "it stinks". That doesn't make Python easier to sell here... Still to late to change... It's not too late to rename the cheese shop though. (We don't need even more stink...) I think a good example on the problem with letting techies like us do naming is that grand successor of Unix developed by the great minds at Bell Labs. First, they name it after a movie which is famous for being exceptionally bad--Plan 9 (from outer space). Really grand company there! Then, when they make a real product of it, they call it Inferno, and some part of it gets called Limbo. They do this on purpose in the U.S. A country full of religious fanatics, where it's impossible to be elected president unless you claim that you are a devoted Christian and say "God bless America" every time you open your mouth. No wonder the preferred operating systems (except a boring proprietary one) are still purely old fashion Unix based ones. Most of those smart improvements never quite made it... -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
