Oh! I never knew that. The word Studio is actually what got me thinking it was more graphic. Now that makes sense, though, because I have heard of Visual Basic before.
Oh! I never knew that. The word Studio is actually what got me thinking it was more graphic. Now that makes sense, though, because I have heard of Visual Basic before.
Yeah, and "Windows" is the perfect name to describe an operating system. What about programs like Dreamweaver and Firefox? Vista? LongHorn? Even the most official corporate giants pick strange names. It makes the applications more memorable.
Except for LaTeX. A name that nobody can't pronounce can't possible be effective.
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
I'm going to disagree here. A user should have no problem with this. When I install KDE I go to the menu and I see a list of application descriptions, with the names only in parentheses, e.g. Web Browser (Konqueror). "Web browser" tells me it is a web browser much better than "Internet Explorer" does. So it explores the Internet? Nope, just the web. GNOME apps often, by convention, will also use descriptions rather than names in its menu. The only people who need to know the names of their programs are users who are going beyond the GUI, and those people know what their applications are anyway.
The OP has a very valid point.
The importance in good naming conventions IS NOT AFTER THE APPLICATION IS WIDELY POPULAR OR ACCEPTED. The true power of a good name is most important when an application is new. Quirky names are fun, yeah, but in all honesty, if I told my friend I was listening to something in Amarok, he'd be utterly confused, whereas, if I'd said iTunes or Windows Media Player or WinAmp they would know exactly what I was doing and with what sort of program.
An example of a good name on a Linux app? gFTP. It's short, sweet, easy-to-remember, and its name tells any sort of knowledgable user what its purpose is. Another? OpenOffice.org Word Processor. I don't think that name leaves any ambiguity at all.
But the very fact that applications with quirky names can and do become popular means that avoidance of quirky naming isn't all that important after all.
Think about it.
Every day, I hear people saying "Google this" or "Let's Google it" or "I Googled it." Do you know how ridiculous they sound? I remember the first time I heard about Google. I thought it was silly... until I started using it. Until then, I'd used InfoSeeker, Go, Lycos, and a host of other search engines. Now, Google is the dominant search engine.
Recently switched from State Farm to Geico for car insurance. Do you think the name had anything to do with it? How about the pricing? Geico. Yup. Silly name.
When I first told my wife about CyberDuck, do you think she was jumping for joy? Nope. She thought it was silly. Now she raves about CyberDuck--recommends it to all her fellow graphic design students.
Once people have tasted an application, they don't care about the name.
That's because you're saying it incorrectly. It's not actually pronounced ``Latex'' but La-tech like the guy above said.It's not hard to say latex, but makes me think of BDSM
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
the names are fine, Names for programs would be very boring if they were all some play of the word that describes it.
Jabber: markgrandi[at]gmail.com
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