[SciPy-User] Naming Ideas

[Dan Goodman]

On 05/09/2012 15:05, Nathaniel Smith wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 10:54 AM, Thomas Kluyver <takowl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sciome - from the numfocus proposal (potential confusion with sciome.com)
>> PyScis - pronounced like pisces (potential confusion with PySCeS and
>> PySci, two unrelated Python projects)
>> Scipy-base
>> Unipy
>> MatSysPy
>> Pyengine
>> Pycraft
>>
>> List subscribers, what do you think? Does one of those names feel
>> right to refer to the scipy/numpy/etc. stack? Would you like to rule
>> any out? Or can you think of a better name yourself?
>
> I said something similar in the numfocus thread, but I'll throw it out again:
>
> The only name that people seem to actually like for this is "PyLab".

PyLab is a nice, clear, memorable name, but I feel like it's a bad fit 
for what is being suggested because it brings to mind Matlab, and, at 
least to me, suggests that we're just playing catch-up with that. The 
existing pylab in matplotlib is well named, because it is more or less 
providing a matlab replacement, but if we want to refer to the whole 
numpy/scipy/etc. ecosystem, which I believe aspires to be much more than 
just a free version of Matlab, shouldn't we be more ambitious and 
self-confident in the name?

That said I have no good ideas. From the list above, Sciome is the 
nicest but the name clash makes it a bit risky I think.

Is the idea that the ecosystem should be focused on scientific 
computation only? I thought that there was a push for more general high 
performance computational stuff?

Some vague ideas, none of which are very good:

- Sciosphere (I like the use of the word 'sphere' to represent an 
ecosystem, like biosphere, unfortunately already exists as well as not 
being very catchy)

- SciGnosis, PyGnosis, etc., i.e. using gnosis (knowledge), although 
pygnosis is a bit close to psygnosis the computer game company, and 
maybe gnosis has too much religious connotation?

Whatever is chosen, it should be easily Googlable returning preferably 
unique results!

Dan