duck!

[Max Samukha]

On 10/16/2010 09:16 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
> Leandro Lucarella wrote:
>> Walter and you have the same convoluted brain, I can understand why he
>> instantly recognize it ;)
>
>
>
>> I already made my point, it make no sense to keep defending my position
>> since, evidently, is a pure subjective matter.
>
> It certainly is a glorious bikeshed.
>
>> I just think auto a_bird = duck!Bird(a_duck) is not obvious at all
>> compared to auto a_bird = adapt!Bird(a_duck). I even think adaptTo is
>> even cleaner, and I tend to hate long names, specially when camelCase is
>> involved, but since you didn't like it I, as others, suggested simply
>> adapt). If one could write auto a_bird = adapt!a_duck(Bird), adapt would
>> be as clear as adaptTo is with the current syntax. With adaptTo!Type you
>> even have the precedent of the to!Type template, so it seems like a nice
>> extension.
>
> Microsoft has a tradition of naming their products after what they do:
> Windows, Word, Office, etc. It's obvious why they do it, and it works,
> but it is just so generic and dull.
>
> Being the upstart language, D needs now and then something a little more
> attention-getting than generic terms. The "duck" feature is important
> for two reasons:
>
> 1. duck typing is all the rage now
>
> 2. being able to implement duck typing as a library feature (rather than
> a language one) is a great demonstration of what D can do
>
> Label it "adaptTo" and few will even notice it. Label it "duck" and
> people will click on the link to see what it does. It's important that
> people notice that D has these things, and "duck" helps with that.
>

I think that is a wrong approach to marketing. Even microsoft avoids 
giving fancy names to API functions. It is ok to give a fancy name to an 
API (Windows Presentation Foundation, etc) or a product but the mundane 
function names should be as boring and factual as they deserve it. It is 
poor programmers and not marketing folks who will be using them.

As other people said, there are better ways of marketing D. For example, 
you may want to hire a professional web designer to make D's web site 
look less amateurish.