The name "Phobos" in user-facing docs

John Gabriele jgabriele at fastmail.fm
Fri Jan 12 21:24:40 UTC 2018


After having started learning some D lately, two things about the 
standard library have struck me:

  1. It has its own name. Phobos. This is unusual. I don't know of 
any other language who's std lib has any name other than "the 
{lang} standard library". Why does it have its own distinct name, 
and why do I (as a user) need to know it?

  2. There is evidently *still* some lingering FUD out there about 
some long-since-settled dual-standard-library issue. I haven't 
been around here long enough, but I still see references to Tango 
here and there.

I think it would help D's image to simply remove the name 
"phobos" from any user-facing docs. That is, change "phobos" to 
"the standard library" everywhere users would be looking. (Of 
course, *internally* the name "phobos" may still be useful for 
repo names, mailing list names, and what have you.)

Just the fact that the std lib *has* it's own user-facing name 
suggests that there may be more than one standard library (or 
else, why would it need its own special name to begin with?). It 
may also imply that the door is open for some other young upstart 
library to swoop in usurp the title of official standard library. 
The standard library having its own distinct user-facing name 
appears to sow confusion.

Maybe, historically, it was useful to have distinct names for 
competing potential D standard libraries, in order to distinguish 
them. Is that still the case?


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