On Mar 8, 2008, at 10:18 AM, William Stein wrote:
> I'm trying to decide if Sage's new "mathematica manipulate" like > functionality should > be called "manipulate" or "interact". [...] > Thoughts about the above names: > 1. Mathematica calls this command "Manipulate", so if > we call it manipulate, then the name will be immediately > familiar to mathematica users, and we benfit from them learning > it more easily as well (since it can do much the same thing). Also more likely to get sued..... > 2. Manipulate sounds sinister (as my wife pointed out rather > strongly). > 3. Interact sound very positive and non-sinister, but perhaps > doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "manipulate". > 4. Interact is shorter, which is a plus. Well they also mean different things. Manipulate means the user is in control, and the computer is just doing what it's being told to do. It's more like driving a car. Interact means it's more like a conversation, with information flowing in both directions. The problem with "interact" is that you're *always* interacting with sage, this is just a different type of interaction, a bit more physically intuitive. Here are some other words I found in an online thesaurus (not to be taken too seriously....) operate maneuver modify activate guide wield steer drive tamper mangle knead adjust mutate modulate alter metamorphose morph renovate transform perturb animate vivify Well I never even heard of "vivify" before. Another option might be to try to come up with a word that emphasises the controls themselves, like "lever" or "slider" or something. david --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
