[Edu-sig] Renaming PyWhip...

[Jeremy Gray]

this is a good conversation to have.

my first though on hearing "whip" is Indiana Jones. I happen to be a white
male (of a certain generation I guess.) I'm also an experimental
psychologist / cognitive neuroscientist, with an interest in social
psychology. there is overwhelming evidence that people are extremely
sensitive to very subtle affective associations and social cues, and get
disuaded very easily from exploring things further. moreover: it tends to be
hard for people in a dominant group to appreciate how much these things
matter to other people. they simply don't believe it can be real. being
well-intentioned does not matter so much.

so basically, if someone wants to appeal to a broad audience, they *have* to
be conservative when it comes to stuff like this. ambiguity is not inviting.
if anyone is interested I can provide links to studies, eg, by Valerie
Purdie-Vaughns at Columbia (recently Yale), or Claude Steele also at
Columbia (recently Stanford), or Mazarin Banaji of Harvard.

+1 for PythonPractice

--Jeremy


On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 1:07 PM, David MacQuigg <macquigg at ece.arizona.edu>wrote:

> This is the first time I have heard anyone object to the name PyWhip, and
> it comes as a complete surprise.  I've been told that the name PyWhip has
> bad connotations, as in white males and nooses.  This seems a bit of a
> stretch to me, but I would like to hear from anyone who might be using this
> site in their classes.  I am especially interested in the opinions of those
> who have a different cultural background or native language.  We want this
> site to appeal to all.  If even one in ten would be offended by PyWhip, we
> should change the name.
>
> My preference for the name PyWhip is just looking for something short and
> memorable.  I don't like PyPractice because it lacks those qualities.
>
> What about the name PyBat?  Nick Paralante, the author of JavaBat wants
> that for his own Python practice site, so I would prefer something else.
>  When I first heard about this website, I thought of batting practice, like
> in baseball.  I suppose bats could be used against people also, but that
> seems like a stretch.  When I think of PyWhip, I think of short, fast
> problems that the students can "whip through".  Maybe my interpretation is a
> stretch.
>
> Anyway, my question is - Does PyWhip have bad connotations?
>
> -- Dave
> Editor in Chief, PyWhip
>
> ************************************************************     *
> * David MacQuigg, PhD    email: macquigg at ece.arizona.edu   *  *
> * Research Associate                phone: USA 520-721-4583   *  *  *
> * ECE Department, University of Arizona                       *  *  *
> *                                 9320 East Mikelyn Lane       * * *
> * http://purl.net/macquigg        Tucson, Arizona 85710          *
> ************************************************************     *
>
>
>
> Jeff Elkner wrote:
>
>> +1 on PyPractice
>>
>> Any other thoughts?  If I don't hear any serious objections, I'll go
>> with PyPractice.
>>
>> jeff elkner
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 7:09 PM, Andre Roberge <andre.roberge at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 7:17 PM, Jeff Elkner <jeff at elkner.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> Andy Harrington and I will be working with group of students on PyWhip
>>>> (http://pywhip.appspot.com).  The 1st order of business is coming up
>>>> with a new name for it, and I wanted to run it by the edu-sig list
>>>> before making the final decision.
>>>>
>>>> I like tryPy, what do folks think?
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Personally, I find tryPy a bit too similar to http://www.trypython.org/in
>>> name and, furthermore, the name tryPy conjures the image of simply trying
>>> Python ... rather than a tool designed to help learning it.
>>>
>>> How about something along the lines of PyDrills or PyExercises or
>>> PyPractice
>>> ?
>>>
>>> André
>>>
>>>
>>
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