[plt-dev] renaming programs in the distribution

From: Jay McCarthy (jay.mccarthy at gmail.com)
Date: Tue Apr 20 08:49:59 EDT 2010

I like the unity of a single command for REPL and everything else. I
also like Robby's idea of turning the complex mzscheme syntax into
some sub-commands, although I don't know how that will be done. I'm a
bit sad to see rico go, but that's fine. I'll probably alias it.

As far as the Web server's name... I agree that 'racket-web-server' is
awkward. Changing the name to something else other than "PLT Web
Server" will be weird. In the world, it is horribly branded, people
write "Continue Web Server", "PLT Scheme's Web Server", "PLT Scheme",
"PLT Scheme Web Server", and endless permutations.

If we went the way of changing the name to something more Web 2.0
sounding, like a Native American tribe or some spider-based
pun/cleverness; then I think that suggests making a totally separate
command. "racket chippewa" is a lot different than "racket compile"
[1]. If there is a name change, I don't feel comfortable choosing it
just because I'm the current Web server maintainer, I'd rather to the
traditional voting, etc.

Leaving it as a sub-command:

racket web-server
racket web
racket servlet
racket serve
racket http

This emphasizes its job rather than its "name".

Jay

1. As an aside, should "racket planet" be "racket package"? Or "racket
packet"? :P

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:52 AM, Sam Tobin-Hochstadt <samth at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 3:27 AM, Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu> wrote:
>> My preference is still to turn `plt-web-server' into `racket
>> web-server', because the point of starting the web server is ultimately
>> to run some Racket code that you wrote. (Along the same lines, I think
>> it makes sense to add `scribble' and `slideshow' commands.) Giving the
>> web server some non-generic name seems ok, too. Changing
>> `plt-web-server' to `racket-web-server' seems awkward to me, because it
>> would be the only important command that starts `racket' but uses a
>> hyphen instead of a space.
>
> I agree on the badness of 'racket-web-server', but I still don't like
> the idea of making the web server into a subcommand.  Therefore, here
> are some suggestions for web server names, following the Native
> American tribe name tradition [0]
>
> - Ute or Shoshone, tribes from Utah [1,2]
> - Chippewa, a tribe with a game called "Ball and Racket" [3]
>
> [0] Apache, Cherokee
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshone
> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute
> [3] http://www.apples4theteacher.com/native-american/games/ball/ball-and-racket.html
> --
> sam th
> samth at ccs.neu.edu
>



-- 
Jay McCarthy <jay at cs.byu.edu>
Assistant Professor / Brigham Young University
http://teammccarthy.org/jay

"The glory of God is Intelligence" - D&C 93


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