If you have to keep correcting people about your product's name, you made a poor name choice. Names, like everything else, have a U/X aspect to them.
What product? It was created by two people in a lab that didn't know whether it would ever have more than a dozen users. Gnuplot as a name is fine imho, barely anyone cares whether it's a GNU project or not. JavaScript still has Java in the name and all you see about it are jokes.
The best explanation I've heard is that it comes from the timeline of when different metals were discovered [2], back in the 1700s. Magnesium was discovered, and was named after Magnesia, a region in Greece. Basically, "magnesi-" + "-um". Then Barium was discovered, and was named from the Greek "baryta", meaning "heavy". Molybdenum followed the "-um" trend, and "tungsten"/"wolfram" ignored the discussion altogether.
And now we get to the first mistake. Tellurium was named from the Greek "tellus", and should have been called "tellurum". Instead, by analogy from magnesium and barium, the suffix "-ium" was added instead. Strontium came next, after the town of Strontian. This reinforced the trend of the "-ium" suffix, even though it came from "stronti-" + "-um". By the time Zirconium was discovered from the mineral "zircon", the association was cemented. So many metals had ended with "-ium" by sheer coincidence, that people assumed that that was the correct Latin suffix.
Bringing it back to the "aluminum" vs "aluminium", this means that there's neither authorial intent nor historical consistency in the use of "aluminium". I'm fine if people think it sounds better, and argue from that, but for the love of all that is holy, people need to quit pretended that it has any more validity or correctness to it.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Coinage [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metals_of_antiquity [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_chemical_element_d...
Why I am grouping "gif", "png", and "alumin[i]um" together here is that people consider some nebulous authority to be the prescriber of all things pronunciation. I personally think that pronunciation is derived from how it is commonly spoken, and not the other way around. Hence its inclusion in my playful ribbing. If I appeal to the correct authority, can I make them change their pronunciation? Maybe it wasn't very funny.
I hate that I always have to look these things up to not look out of place. For example nginx is engine-ex not en-jinks. They often seem intentionally hard or ambiguous to pronounce.
It all started with all good .com domains being taken, and now, here we are.
Same with Apache, since in Europe it typically gets pronounced appa-sha (as it would be in French)
I can't find a website that does the Nahuatl pronunciation, but my guess is that it's closer to the Spanish than English
> Brian Behlendorf, one of the Apache's creators, asserted that the origins of Apache were not a pun, stating:
> > The name literally came out of the blue. I wish I could say that it was something fantastic, but it was out of the blue. I put it on a page and then a few months later when this project started, I pointed people to this page and said: "Hey, what do you think of that idea?" ... Someone said they liked the name and that it was a really good pun. And I was like, "A pun? What do you mean?" He said, "Well, we're building a server out of a bunch of software patches, right? So it's a patchy Web server." I went, "Oh, all right." ... When I thought of the name, no. It just sort of connotated: "Take no prisoners. Be kind of aggressive and kick some ass."
So, no, it's based on a stereotype of a group of tribes indigenous to North America. The pun endures because the indigenous culture did not.
Probably North American native language (though there is a less-accepted theory of entirely-Spanish origin), but almost certainly not Nahuatl. Per Wikipedia, the dominant theories are Zuni and Yavapai.
So as a shibboleth it mostly functions to distinguish those who discuss tech in English with their colleagues from those who do not. The latter group is quite diverse; it includes self-taught people, people communicating mostly in writing, and people who speak other languages than English with their colleagues.
> For example nginx is engine-ex not en-jinks. They often seem intentionally hard or ambiguous to pronounce.
I think it's a side-effect of the desire to create a name for your project that is both short and unique.
Wheel Of Fortune has taught us that vowels are expensive, so best not have any in your name.
Meaning if you encounter someone here that pronounces SQL as sequel you probably found a DotNet developer or at least someone that primarily focuses on Microsoft technologies.
S-Q-L is used by pretty much everyone else here.
I mostly have a background in Linux/Unix-y stuff, and I've hardly ever heard someone say "sequel" since, so this seems about right.
Not that I care either way, pronounce things however you like, but it sure can be confusing!
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7231/how-is-sql-...
I recall him saying that Sequel was a distinct language. The info I can find on SEQUEL today suggests he was trying to distinguish modern (1994) versions of SQL from the early versions. Or maybe he was afraid someone in a suit[1] would show up to admonish him for improper use of a trademark[2].
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15887145 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL
"Structured Query Language"
For the super cool who use the one true vendor it is:
"Microsoft Structured Query Language Server"
I suspect -X is more common.
There are many points to language - quite a porcupine....
In Linux' case, Linus Torvalds has said that he doesn't really care and admits that he instinctively pronounces it differently depending on the language that he's speaking.
That's definitely not how you pronounce LaTeX.
Wikipedia recommends LAH-tekh or LAY-tekh.
It's nicely counterpointed by the other habit of not pronouncing letters which are there, like in Worchestershire.
Likewise for "law": is it meant to be /lɑ/ or /lɔ/? It's not clear because the word is pronounced differently in different dialects.
For reference, Wikipedia recommends /ˈlɑtɛx/ and /ˈleɪtɛx/, and the two linked videos use /lə'tɛk/ and /ˈleɪtɛk/ respectively.
What is lacks in perfect clarity it makes up for in instant readability.
How on earth could LAH be ambiguous now?
Case-sensitive naming is dumb.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. The name is a pun on the name of the gnu animal. Just because GNU also made the same pun doesn't mean they are related, or that they have anything to do with each other.
gnuplot's history goes back to 1986, when GNU was in its infancy. The name was fine then, and is probably fine now.
> Their license also seems copy left to me.
The license is interesting! I'm surprised they've stuck with it. But yeah, it does appear copyleftish.
For what it's worth, the about box on my older PowerBook shows "System Software 7.1" and the manual simply says "system software" (i.e. not a proper noun).
Can you name a company with Unicode symbols?
My guess is that a popular made up name by the user base would emerge.
Which makes me guess that a bad name is worse than no name. Gnuplot misleads.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/featu...
I think intentionally being obscure is kind of the point for a lot of these things.
“ After the change, Warner Bros. had to mail out floppy disks to news organizations featuring a font that allowed for reproduction of the new Prince symbol, because the symbol itself cannot be replicated in the fonts most publications use.”
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11481686/prince-name-change-sy...
fp!
For a very long time I thought it was a play on "./" in the unix sense.