[SciPy-User] Naming Ideas

[Alan G Isaac]

On 9/6/2012 5:34 AM, Robert Kern wrote:
> http://mail.scipy.org/pipermail/scipy-dev/2009-August/012475.html


The narrow goal of the current discussion as I understand it is to
standardize a subset of packages for scientific computing and to
provide a name that distributors can use to signal that they
include this set.  One can anticipate that this set might change
over time.

So here is a new name proposal (as if another were needed):
SciPyDist, or SPD for short.  Further I suggest that
specific package sets be referred to by appending the year.
E.g., SciPyDist2012 would be the set of packages agreed
in 2012 to constitute the standard.  (Of course some will
prefer a standard versioning scheme.)

The broader goal as I understand it is to allow researchers
to easily know if a distribution claims to provide a certain
core tool set and thereby to encourage those who create
such distributions to certainly include these, making it
simpler for researchers to count on a core tool set.

The broad goal as I see it is to promote scientific
computing and raise awareness of the utility of
scipy-the-package and a few of its close friends.

Robert's post implicitly raises the question of how much
this will help advance the use of scipy-the-package.
Aside from consuming time to pick the name and decide on
the core packages, I don't see how it can hurt. But it
would be nice to have a clear statement of how it will help.

Cheers,
Alan Isaac