Real world example: Once there was a new browser from Mozilla called Firebird. There was also a previously established RDBMS called Firebird. No one believed the browser and the RDBMS would be confused, but none the less Firebird the Browser is now called Firefox. The reason is a little confused - Mozilla at the time claimed something like "Firefox was only the code name", but I think they would have left it alone if the people from Firebird RDBMS hadn't asked them to rethink the naming.
Edit: also, searching for "prolog web framework" gets you stuff about using prolog for web application development. So, yeah, naming is not great and your assertion is not entirely correct.
> Edit: also, searching for "prolog web framework" gets you stuff about using prolog for web application development. So, yeah, naming is not great and your assertion is not entirely correct.
Is this a typo? I would certainly hope that a search for "prolog web framework" would not include results about a web framework written in Nim named "Prologue"
"Prolog" and "prologue" are completely different words with different meanings-- they are only homophones. It's not really analogous (at all) to the Firebird situation where the names of the projects had the exact same name, same spelling and all.
If this project were named "Sea", do you think people would conflate it with the "C" programming language?
> Is this a typo? I would certainly hope that a search for "prolog web framework" would not include results about a web framework written in Nim named "Prologue"
Unfortunately not. It's caused by fuzzy matching and happens with other words (and languages) too. Annoying but I don't think we should start avoiding certain words because google search (and some people apparently) can't make the distinction.
> searching for "prolog web framework" gets you stuff about using prolog for web application development ... And no sniff of this new framework.
The comment I replied to described that they searched for "prolog web framework", which is NOT the name of this project. The name of this project is "prologue".
"prolog" != "prologue"
Searching for "prolog web framework" should not return results about the "Prologue" web framework. What the commenter I replied to described is the correct behavior.
Edit: I understand that contrived searches might be constructed to fall victim to fuzzy matching, but what the comment I replied to confirmed is that it's probably not an issue in this case.
Well they are, but they aren't. They are both pronounced the same and if I hear one, I could easily mistake the other. If someone tells me about this "prologue web framework" I could easily transliterate that as "prolog". Also - fuzzy search as mentioned.
"Sea" and "C" are not the same ballpark. "Prolog" is a subset of "Prologue." This is more like "C" and "C#", and I can tell you that it is actually a problem.
So was your edit on the comment I replied to (repeated below) a typo?
> Edit: also, searching for "prolog web framework" gets you stuff about using prolog for web application development. So, yeah, naming is not great and your assertion is not entirely correct.
This is an anecdote in favor of fuzzy search not really being an issue.
> If someone tells me about this "prologue web framework" I could easily transliterate that as "prolog".
If someone told me about that “C programming language” I could easily transliterate that as “sea” or misremember it as “B”.
These are contrived situations. Imagine someone told me about “Prologue: a web framework written in Nim”, and I transliterated that to “prolog web framework”. If I searched that and it didn’t come up with a web framework written in Nim, I would think critically about the issue and change my search to “prolog web framework Nim” and would find this project.
It would be so silly to change the name or avoid the name of a completely unrelated project when ideally anyone faced with the issue would have the critical thinking skills to adjust and refine their search terms so it was not an issue.
The edit? No. Why would it be a typo? You assume everyone's first language is English, right?
So, it really depends on your search engine. Using 3 different ones, assuming my English spelling is less than stellar, only looking at the first page:
"Prolog Web framework"
Duck Duck Go/ Bing/ Google: all prolog
"Prologe Web framework"
Duck Duck Go: 5th hit is Prolog based
Bing: 7th hit is prolog
Google: first hit prolog
So yeah - there is a possibility of confusion.
> If someone told me about that “C programming language” I could easily transliterate that as “sea” or misremember it as “B”.
If you knew nothing about programming and technology. I counter that if someone told be about "Prologue" I would assume "Prolog". I wonder why "Nim" would come in to it? I don't know about you, but I don't go around saying "I wrote apps in MFC in C++ in the 90's", or "I write ASP.Net applications in C#". I think the framework stands alone, surely? The language is an implementation detail, and I guess Prologue might one day be ported to another platform if it is really all that good?
The issue is that your position is people something like - should be intelligent enough to know what is meant by a phrase. My position is that you are massively underestimating the issue with the words basically looking and sounding the same. Your attempt at a counter is a weak argument about how people might dramatically misremember facts anyway.
I think I looked at your history, and this is not the first time you got in to a debate like this, so I'm out... it's a bad name - the creator should probably rethink it or prefix "Nim" to make it unique, but whatever.
Also it's not the first time I get garbage results from google's fuzzy matching, happens with other words too. Arguably it's annoying and should be improved instead.
As a new user, I was able to get a pronounceable(ish) 4-letter username. It's not always hard. But Prologue is an English word and a lot of English words are taken. (and probably many words in other languages, too)
When I try to search for your name, I only get hits on some country radio channel. I could search for ‘wezl hacker news’, but it would have been easier if you had chosen a non-colliding name to begin with.
sincerely asking: are you worried that anyone will suffer from this decision? Personally I can't imagine a scenario where someone actually feels any pain from this naming decision. Adding "nim" to your prologue search is par for the course for many categories of search. I laugh about how often I get guitar string ads because I'm always looking up "elixir string" documentation xD but it's not a pain point. Who suffers here? It's FOSS so the "marketing" of the project has little to do with the name I'd suspect. I mean who is going to pick a technology based on the search-ability? We're talking about decisions being made by people who are highly skilled internet searchers.