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Comment by Diti | Hacker News Reader

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Diti·

Those aren’t spinners (also called numeric updowns, see [1]). Those are throbbers (also called loading icons, see [2]).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throbber

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> [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_(computing)

Hah, I did not expect that. I can't imagine any end users will be able to name that one.

This is a rare instance where I think Wikipedia is plain wrong. Maybe the process to have multiple pages renamed is onerous? The thing in the original post I've usually heard to be called spinners, while this input element, which I'm not sure I've ever even seen, doesn't seem to have its name justified in any way on the Wikipedia page either. I can't really tell why it'd desperately need a concise name either, it's basically a numeric input with extra controls on it? anyhow, spinners spin and those spin so they're spinners, I won't hear otherwise.

Mozilla employees up until recently (2024), and research literature, seem to be calling them throbbers as well.

Anecdotally, I’ve only ever heard non-frontend developers call them “spinners”.

Maybe starting a discussion on the articles’ talk page could elicit some change? Language evolves, after all.

> I’ve only ever heard non-frontend developers call them “spinners”

Such as these non-frontend devs?

https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/components/spinners/

spin boxes date back to windows 95 and were part of the windows common controls, often called spinners

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/...

I think they fell out of fashion after the scroll wheel was invented

To be fair, those do spin, while "spinners" don't.

That’s not how language works.

That is how language works.

The general public says: no.

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