Programmers and software developers lost the plot on naming their tools

Posted by todsacerdoti 12/11/2025

422 points | 534 commentspage 12

didibus 12/12/2025|

I think it's because if you always used a descriptive name you'd end up with multiple tools with the same name.

runamuck 12/12/2025||

My favorite - "Tech without an interesting name (TWAIN)" for scanner/ imaging drivers from the 90s.

akie 12/12/2025||

Fun party game: Ask people if they know ChatGPT. When they inevitably say "yes", ask what GPT stands for.

qq66 12/12/2025||

By this standard, ChatGPT is an excellent name: it's a generative pre-trained transformer that chats with you.

davidfekke 12/11/2025||

The two hardest things to do in computer science is knowing when to invalidate cache and how to name things.

9rx 12/11/2025|

And off-by-one errors.

rco8786 12/12/2025||

It's literally just as hard to name things descriptively as it is to name them cutely.

Beestie 12/11/2025||

First it was racehorses. Then it was prescription medications. Then software.

I hope this goes no further.

chanux 12/12/2025||

The craft beer names though.

idatum 12/12/2025||

I'll offer a recent example. Gigantic Brewing Company in Portland, OR: The Cat Ate My Stash & Pissed On the Christmas Tree

Style is IPA - American.

morshu9001 12/11/2025||

Idk about open source tools, but internal corporate things have codenames for good reasons.

tdiff 12/12/2025|

Im jealous of people able to write multi-paragraph text for such a simple thought.