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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