[development] Naming the CVS abstraction module

Andre Molnar mcsparkerton at yahoo.co.uk
Sat Jun 9 18:08:46 UTC 2007


Its the sonic.module.

Short for: Summer Of NamIng Code.

Its short and memorable and follows the naming Theory of Negativity
http://www.igorinternational.com/process/negativity-naming-strategy.php

Rather than focus on the negative people will associate the module with
speed and the joyous sounds coming from their mouths when they use this
great API.

andre
(Still wishing that CCK module could have been called 'cocktail').


Jakob Petsovits wrote:
> Derek (in his mentor role) and I are in search of a good name for the module 
> that I'll develop during this Google Summer of Code. (...once again, as the 
> directory in CVS will be recreated due to other reasons.)
> 
> We need your input on this issue, as none of the options seems to be
> the ideal one.
> 
> Objective of the module:
> To abstract the existing CVS integration into a separate API and an 
> accompanying set of projects, so that we can more easily plug in other 
> backends for different version control systems like Subversion, git, etc.
> 
> Now, naming this thing is a bit hard, as there's no widely standardized term 
> for these things which handle repositories and stuff.
> We can currently think of the following names for the module:
> 
> - rcs.module / "Revision Control System API"
> Slightly suboptimal since there already is a revision control system that goes 
> by the name of "RCS". As the predecessor of CVS, it's not very common these 
> days, but people still use it. So when calling the module "RCS API" it might 
> be mistaken for the original RCS.
> 
> - vcs.module / "Version Control System API"
> Better, but the name is quite verbose. I'd personally prefer
> "Version Control API" because it's snappy and easy to grasp from the 
> beginning. However, there are other drawbacks on this.
> 
> - vc.module / "Version Control API"
> Fixes the previous issue, but occupies a top-level acronym ("VC") that is used 
> for a common term like Venture Capitalists, selected indiviuals also think of 
> Visual C when reading this acronym. So this screams for namespace clashes. 
> Also, it doesn't immediately prompt associations for version control with 
> most people, which is certainly the case for "VCS" or "RCS".
> 
> - versioncontrol.module, and other long names
> Annoying as function prefixes in the code, I'd rather prefer short ones.
> 
> - scm.module "Source Control Management API"
> Sounds reasonably good, looks reasonably good, but has the unfortunate 
> drawback that it specializes on source control. There may be people though 
> who use revision control for other stuff like client documents or config 
> files, so this doesn't quite fit as well.
> 
> - Other proposals?
> If you've got a good idea that we hadn't yet thought of, do tell us.
> 
> Please chime in on this issue. The development list might not be the most 
> fitting place for this discussion, but given that the feedback in the SoC 
> group on the same issue wasn't all too extensive (say, none until I 
> specifically promted my other mentor Andy) we thought it appropriate to bring 
> this issue to the mailing list.
> 
> What do you think would be the best name for this module?
> 
> -- Jakob, SoC student
> 



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