The DeRailed Challenge

[Kevin Bealer]

kris wrote:
> Kevin Bealer wrote:
>> kris wrote:
> [snip]
>>> It's just a "working" name; nothing more. There's plenty of time to 
>>> change it :)
>>
>>
>> Yes - and sorry if the above seems over-critical.  I just see 
>> "regular" people cringe every time I mention "the gimp", and it 
>> reminds me that there is a cultural schism. ;)
>>
>> Kevin
> 
> 
> Don Knuth states:  "The most important thing in the programming language 
> is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have 
> recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable 
> language"
> 
> Jesting aside, I tend to agree that a name can potentially make or break 
> a product. In retrospect, and considering the original timeframe, do you 
> suppose "Oak" would have generated as much interest without a name 
> change to "Java" ?

Right -- I think there is a spectrum of vegetable names as used by products:

Trees - boring, you can't even eat them.  Oak is the most boring tree.
Greens - like cabbage; you can eat them, at least in theory
Colored Vegetables - a little better, tomatoes, corn are popular
Spicy vegetables - hot peppers, etc, much better
Slightly mind altering veggies - coffee, tobacco, tea.
Actual narcotics - poppies, cocaine, etc. --> too much


Now, for most products you probably want a name that is somewhere in the 
hot pepper or coffee range.  You could name a sportscar the "salsa". 
Tea leaves are like coffee but have a 'tame' reputation, and tobacco is 
kind of gotten itself a bad name lately.

Then there's "substance D". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_D

Kevin

(Okay.. It's time for me to either go to sleep, or wake up -- whichever 
I'm not already doing.)