Breaking backwards compatiblity

[Walter Bright]

On 3/11/2012 2:51 PM, bearophile wrote:
>> And sometimes, a name change can be a huge win - the invariant=>immutable
>> one is an example. But I think that's an exceptional case, not a rule.
>
> I was among the ones that have asked for that name change. But "immutable" is
> a quite long word. Now I think the "val" used by Scala is better, it uses
> less space for something I use often enough. "imm" is another option, but it
> looks less nice :-)

The reason we went with "immutable" is for any other name, I'd be constantly 
explaining:

     "xyzzy" means immutable

And I did just that for "invariant". Over and over and over. People immediately 
get what "immutable" means, like for no other name. So consider "immutable" a 
labor saving device for me.