the python name

[Avi Gross]

[NOTE: Not a serious post, just a response to a complaint about python as a name and computer language names in general.]

On further thought, it seems that a name that reminds some people that it is a computer language would be in hexadecimal and start with 0X. But that restricts the remainder of the name to numerals plus {A,B,C,D,E,F} so something like 0XFACE or 0XDEAF or 0XFADE so how about:

0XFACADE

Clearly the language is just a façade behind whose face are other representations we are normally deaf to heading down towards binary.

You can, of course, use the usual password tricks where zero can stand for oh, one for el and so on. That extends the words you can make. And of course some digits can expand with 2 becoming two or even to/too and 4 becoming fore.

PYTHON by this weird measure is horrible as every single letter is above F.  AnAC0nDA is much better.

ADA works!

And the cure for JAVA might be DECAF in a CAFÉ.

Better suggestions about what a computer language name should look like are welcome. I am thinking a bit outside the box that a solution might be in a box. I am thinking of a binary matrix containing 0/1 in a 2d-pattern that spells out something  or perhaps has two sections side by side where the background letters on each side are all of the same digit while the foreground using the other digit spells out itself, or perhaps the opposite. This is an ASCII message environment so I won't show a sample. Not THAT would be a name, albeit a long one.

Back to seriousness. I do not understand any suggestions that the python language will go away any time soon. It will continue to evolve and sometimes that evolution may introduce incompatibilities so earlier versions may have to stop being supported. In many recent polls I keep seeing Python getting an increasing share of programs written for all kinds of purposes. Of course, there will be competition from other languages and new ones will arise.  I also see no reason any one person needs to steer the evolution indefinitely. Unrestricted growth is bad but as the world advances, some growth is a good idea. Bad analogy, but snakes do tend to shed their skin periodically as they grow.






-----Original Message-----
From: Larry Martell <larry.martell at gmail.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, January 2, 2019 8:08 PM
To: Avi Gross <avigross at verizon.net>
Cc: Python <python-list at python.org>
Subject: Re: the python name

On Wed, Jan 2, 2019 at 8:04 PM Avi Gross <avigross at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> Challenge: Can we name any computer language whose name really would suggest it was a computer language?

COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) FORTRAN (Formula Translation)
PL/1 (Programming Language 1)
ALGOL (Algorithmic Language)