[HN Gopher] A small Scheme implementation with AOT and increment...
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       A small Scheme implementation with AOT and incremental compilers
       that fits in 4K
        
       Author : eatonphil
       Score  : 61 points
       Date   : 2021-11-28 19:16 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | throwaway81523 wrote:
       | Earlier thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29348033
        
       | lovelyviking wrote:
       | >The Ribbit compiler is written in Scheme and can be executed
       | with Gambit, Guile or Chicken.
       | 
       | Just imagine how one who never used those tools reads it ...
       | especially the "Chicken" part. Don't forget to imagine using
       | search engine to find the meaning of 'Chicken' and how many nice
       | results from the local farms you have to filter out before you
       | find what you need.
       | 
       | Do people think about those things when they invent them?
       | 
       | Seriously with all those names at some point isn't it a good idea
       | to use some prefix-Name where prefix explains what Name does?
       | 
       | Because we see more and more of those "names" and it's getting
       | worse and worse. Really try to read something in unfamiliar area
       | with all those Chickens Dinosaurs and other artificial life forms
       | )... it's getting a bit crazy.
        
         | tubby12345 wrote:
         | Why do people incessantly complain about this? It's by far the
         | lowest brow complaint I've ever seen about anything - "some
         | hypothetical person might not be able to Google". Note they're
         | never complaining on their own behalf because they have the
         | OP's link. So it's a case of "won't someone please think of the
         | poor Googler".
         | 
         | In 20 years of googling there is only one project I had a hard
         | time googling (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/390016.808445).
         | It does not happen.
        
           | lovelyviking wrote:
           | >Why do people incessantly complain about this?
           | 
           | May be because number of those names grows and it's becoming
           | overwhelming?
           | 
           | >"some hypothetical person"
           | 
           | It's not hypothetical person I constantly stumble on strange
           | names and frequently in context where I do not care how it is
           | called as long as I know what function it performs (even
           | approximately). And strange names appear more and more and
           | the main question I have usually: What is it? What it does?.
           | 
           | The same happens with web sites for new products. With all
           | great slogans like "It will improve your productivity" and
           | similar sentences I am not interested to read it's lacking
           | one mention of what it _actually_ does and what it 's all
           | about.
           | 
           | Thus the idea to use prefix-Name format in descriptions. What
           | do you think about that idea? Would it improve educational
           | function? Would it be easier to understand then searching for
           | the term?
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | zem wrote:
           | I remember having trouble googling for examples of Nice and
           | Clean code back when I was interested in those languages,
           | because even adding "programming" and similar to the mix
           | wasn't really helpful. but that was also a while ago, google
           | has gotten better at contextual keywords since.
        
         | Turing_Machine wrote:
         | > Seriously with all those names at some point isn't it a good
         | idea to use some prefix-Name where prefix explains what Name
         | does?
         | 
         | While neither "chicken" nor "scheme" is a very good search term
         | on its own, of course, "chicken scheme" works pretty well.
         | 
         | It's far from the most unsearchable name I've seen.
        
           | lovelyviking wrote:
           | Sure but this name was used just as example and even in that
           | example one can say it's unclear why he should combine Scheme
           | with Chicken and not other two for wining combination of
           | those unfamiliar words.
           | 
           | With all respect my focus is not with that specific name but
           | with proposition to add prefixes-to-Name when it may be
           | unclear to possible reader.
           | 
           | The number of those names is growing and it seems inevitable
           | to do something about it. It's hard to read page and search
           | every word on it while it's enough to approximately
           | understand what is it about and search for details later if
           | there is a need.
        
             | alekq wrote:
             | Chicken in particular exists for roughly 20 years and like
             | many projects started as hobby... Some time ago I read an
             | interview with the author (Felix Winkelmann) and he gave
             | the name because of the toy on his desk (if I remember
             | correctly).
             | 
             | Your point is clear, but he probably did not have second
             | thoughts considering he was doing it for fun.
        
             | GeorgeTirebiter wrote:
             | It's more an issue of how much 'common vocabulary' folks
             | who are interested in a subject share. If you're 'into'
             | Scheme, you probably know many implementations, including
             | Guile, Gambit, and Chicken. And also versions inside
             | Racket, and Scheme48, and ...
             | 
             | True, for someone coming at this who's not Scheme-
             | implementation-familiar, the names might as well be Zaphod,
             | or Beeblebrox, or similar-seeming nonsense.
             | 
             | It seems in any 'domain' there is a set of definitions that
             | is assumed in that domain. That is, I don't see any real
             | problem with naming here.
        
             | glenda wrote:
             | Yes things like Windows, Racket, Amazon, Tesla, Apple,
             | Android... these are already words that existed however
             | there is clearly room to share meaning based on context.
             | When you're taking about lisp and you mention "chicken"
             | it's clear you're not talking about the animal.
             | 
             | I am honestly surprised how many people in HN comments have
             | this same complaint over and over again. Not everything
             | needs to be directly searchable by name only.
        
               | lovelyviking wrote:
               | Sure, it's just the number of them is getting bigger. So
               | what do you think about mentioned idea of prefix-Name
               | format in descriptions?
        
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       (page generated 2021-11-28 23:00 UTC)