Whither Tango?

[Rainer Deyke]

On 2/21/2010 17:42, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> Rainer Deyke wrote:
> If I had to pick one, I'd go for genSequence since I prefer the idea of 
> "generating" a sequence to "making" one. I do like ioto for it's 
> memorability though.

The memorability of iota doesn't scale.  There are 24 letters in the
Greek alphabet.  Imagine that each one was assigned a different function
in D.  Would iota still be memorable next to eta and zeta?  Would you
remember the difference between nu and mu, between eplison and upsilon?

'iota' is memorable to you not because it's a good name, but because it
stands out.  Out of any set of items, only a small subset can stand out.
 A name that stands out is more memorable because it attracts attention,
but that attention is pulled away from other names.  Therefore, the name
'iota' makes the rest of Phobos harder to learn, even if you never use
'iota'.


-- 
Rainer Deyke - rainerd at eldwood.com