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Comment by Bo102010 | Hacker News Reader

Bo102010

Is there a good name for a spreadsheet application besides "Spreadsheet?"

"VisiCalc" was the first one on a PC, "Lotus 1-2-3" became popular later, "Excel" is now the dominant one...

In all seriousness, what's the problem calling it "LibreOffice Spreadsheets"? Along with "LibreOffice Presentations", "LibreOffce Documents", "LibreOffice Databases"; are we so pressed for space we can't just say exactly what it is? The "name" is libreoffice, I don't see why the individual components have to be unique or catchy.

May be they didn't want it to be confused with spreadshit?

For windows users in particular, the bundled calculator is called calc.exe. That alone might create confusion. Besides, "Calc" does have a "Calculator" feel when you read it. A comparable thing would be to have a text editor named "Term", or "Conso". Any unix user might expect those to fire of a CLI, not an editor. This is comparable, IMO.

Apple has "Numbers", which seems as good a name for a spreadsheet program as any, to me.

I don't see how "Numbers" is any more intuitive than "Calc", not that Calc is really a good name for a spreadsheet application, but at least it makes sense. Spreadsheets do calculate things, it's just the name collision with the Windows app calc and the fact most people associate calculating with, well a calculator. Calc may be a poor name for a spreadsheet app but Numbers is definitely worse.

> I don't see how "Numbers" is any more intuitive than "Calc"

In an office, ask a bookkeeper, sales manager, whomever, "Hey, show me the numbers!", and you're going to see a spreadsheet. If you ask, "Hey, show me the calc!", you'll get a blank look.

Evidence suggests "Numbers" is a perfectly cromulent word.

Where I've worked, you'd be more likely to see a spreadsheet poorly pasted into a PowerPoint presentation with a poorly scaled bitmap of a logo in the corner that is a 6 MiB attachment to an email...

Your worthy point embiggens us all.

"Gnumeric" at least has something to do with the task, and "KSpread" is basically "spreadsheet"

Gnumeric only makes sense if you know how to pronounce "gnu".

That's one thing that always bugged me about Linux desktops. I've been using Linux as my desktop OS since Debian 2.0 and the naming convention tendencies of desktop environments are counterintuitive to non-Linux users. The uninitiated just don't know what GNU is or the differences between KDE and GNOME, other than how they look and feel. If Linux desktops are aiming for usability, naming everything Gnusomething, Ksomesomthing or Gsomething is just a poor choice for application names.

Really? Someone who said 'Gee-numeric', or who just assumed the 'G' is silent, would get the gist of it.

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