Ask HN: If you had to name your child after a programming function ...

5 points·jawns··16 comments

... which function would it be?

Give the function, the language, and your rationale for choosing it.

(I think this would be more appropriate on Reddit. I don't mean it in a belittling way, just that there would be more answers and better ranking on Reddit than on HN for this kind of questions.)

I would imagine fork() in C would be the most obvious.

It would NOT be this:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/cumtrapz.html

I think if I knew I had to name my child after a programming function I wouldn't have kids.

http://xkcd.com/327/ comes to mind.

But, to answer the question: If I absolutely had to, I'd find a language which has a function which also happens to be an acceptable name. Or, if no such thing exists, I'd quickly hack up my own >;]

Thinking about it, Max is a good name, and exists in multiple languages.

segfault, C, it was an accident :P

(I don't have a child, just thought it would be funny) (its also not really a function, but oh well)

malloc() (C) sounds good. Almost like Luke. Great name for a baby boy.

XMLHttpRequest. Because it has a nice ring to it. "Jack" for short.

mandel() C Infinitely complex, surprising and rewarding.

Either Len or Isatty (Python)

I would hope he calls me Pop.

defmacro, probably (lisp and variants). Because he would have all the power of the language at his/her hands

int (x86 ASM) - because the little kid will need to call their mother and father sometimes.

(first) (second) (third) (nth )

any Lisp

spawn, for self-evident reasons

Len

eval(); But I already called it.

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