[Python-Dev] what to call this zip() function?

[Fredrik Lundh]

eric:
> ping:
> > The analogy with a photocopying machine is pretty good, but
> > i'm afraid this will play havoc with those who see "collate" in
> > terms of determining sort order.
>=20
> *ouch*
>=20
> Damn.  Ping is right.  He just blew "collate" out of the water, folks.

is this the end of Python development?

just imagine what this crowd would have done if guido had asked
you *before* he added things like:

    dir ("hey, dir should give you a list of filenames")

    cgi ("the computer graphics crowd won't like that")

    del ("removes files, right?")

    compile ("but people will think that it generates
    machine code")

    global ("but it's not truly global. how about regional
    or domestic?")

    hash ("that's a data type, right?") ("or perhaps something
    from the The Amsterdam Aloha Seed Bank?")

    hex ("now wait.  it's not clear from the name if it con-
    verts a hex string to an integer, or the other way around.
    oh, it's the latter.  sorry, but that will confuse perl pro-
    grammers")

    type ("is that some variation of print, or?")

    copy ("I'd say most people expect it to copy entire files")

and so on...

...

maybe something completely random?  how about:

    ymr116c

("sorry, this will confuse the hell out of yeast researchers")

...

how about a new rule: if the group fails to reach consensus
on a name, especially if they're not discussion the semantics
at all, just pick the original name.

    "zip", in other words.

simple zip patches has already been posted to this list.  why
not take them on a test drive, and see if the *semantics* are
what you want them to be?

(in the meantime, maybe someone could run the zip/collate/etc
thing by comp.lang.python.  maybe people are smarter than we
think?)

</F>