Comment by focusaurus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by focusaurus | Hacker News Reader

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So "Closure" is a real comp sci word used to describe variable scope lifetimes in languages includes JavaScript and others. So when google named their project, they basically took a word from JavaScript/CompSci that starts with the same letter as "Compiler" (plus other similar sounds). I don't think there's much more to it than that.

"Clojure" is a programming language again based on the regular word "closure" but with some twists: The "j" is a tip of the hat to Java and the JVM where clojure is designed to run. This also has the nice property that the "zh" sound of the "s" in closure is also used with "j" sometimes (I think due to French). Thirdly I believe the "CL" letters of clojure are a tip to Common Lisp.

I'm not familiar with "Clozure CL" but the history is here: http://ccl.clozure.com/history.html

> So when google named their project, they basically took a word from JavaScript/CompSci that starts with the same letter as "Compiler" (plus other similar sounds). I don't think there's much more to it than that.

Isn't it because it can optimize the output so that it only includes those dependencies that the program references, i.e. the whole program is like a closure that closes over its dependencies?

Thanks for explaining, but it remains confusing! And it seems so unnecessary.

In general, I think you should not pick names from the domain where your product/tool operates in. For example, it would be equally confusing if a car manufacturer would brand its cars "Engine" or "Wheel". Such naming is worse than just choosing a fantasy name.

P.S.: As another example, "Java" was a good name. But then Netscape invented a language and called it "JavaScript", which was of course a very poor choice.

Right? Keep that in mind when you name your next language or project :)

I call dibs on "Cloxure."

I heard that Rich Hickey chose Clojure because it has both `CLR` and `J` - initially he thought Clojure will be adopted in both - .Net CLR and JVM

I may be reading more into 'initially he thought' than you meant but Clojure CLR is real and has been around for years: https://github.com/clojure/clojure-clr

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