The name "Phobos" in user-facing docs

[Michael]

On Friday, 12 January 2018 at 21:24:40 UTC, John Gabriele wrote:
> 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?

I mean, you're correct to say it's an artifact of D being an old 
language. Tango was the original, and Phobos was introduced for 
D2 as a competing library. I don't see this as being confusing 
for new users. When I learnt D, I simply understood that the 
standard library was called "Phobos" instead of "STL" some other 
associated term. It didn't ever become confusing, and when I 
learnt about Tango I was immediately made aware (by the context) 
that Tango was simply the old standard library, where Phobos had 
replaced it. This isn't any more confusing than C99, C11 etc. as 
versioning numbers for updates to the language and their 
libraries. D1 and Tango, D2 and Phobos. I don't think it's common 
to get the impression that Tango is still a competing library, 
though that may differ for some users.