Eric J Schubert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>I would
>appreciate any comments from the list on content, accuracy and possible
>pointers to other sources to further my research (or how do you solve this
>problem?).
>
>SUBJECT:
>With distributed computing becoming commonplace - suddenly computer islands
>become metropolises of a single view.  Here I explore the usage of names
>within this environment.
 
>"If we were to create the ultimate
> human hostile computer environment
> by assigning random numbers
> to all our names - technologically
> nothing will break.  There in lies
> the lack of motivation for doing
> names right."
 
 
Tony Furnivall <[log in to unmask]> commented:
 
>My personal example comes from my ballroom dancing instructor with whom I
>have a love-hate relationship that borders on the psychotic!
>
>We were working on some cha-cha steps, and she was insisting that a
>particular sequence went 1-2-3 and 4. On checking a reference manual I
>discovered that the musical model for a cha-cha was 2-3-4 and 1. (In musical
>terms this is either two quarter notes followed by two eighth notes and a
>quarter note, or three quarter notes followed by two eight notes). The only
>reason that this caused problems was that I was trying as a musician, to
>relate the steps to the beats of the bar - a mental model which I have spent
>well over 40 years inculcating in my brain, and I'm not about (or able!) to
>change right now.
>
>It took the instructor and me about 45 minutes to work around the problem,
>and to reach a statement of what we were talking about which made sense to
>both of us. (A hellishly expensive way to reach agreement :-) The problem
>was exactly what you are wrestling with - a naming problem!
 
 
As a specific technical example of the wisdom (or lack thereof) surrounding
"naming", I have always recommended the use of EXPLICIT field names in
lists for the IMAGE intrinsics (as opposed to using item NUMBERS for the
fields).
 
As another example, more theoretical in nature, let me point Eric to "other
sources to further" his research.  About 21 years ago, I studied, in great
depth, a wonderful little book by S. I. Hayakawa ("Language in Thought and
Action" ISBN 0-15-148097-4).  Hopefully, Eric, one of Notre Dame's
libraries will have a historical copy or two.  Anyway, here are a couple of
relevant passages:
 
"There is a sense in which we all live in two worlds.  First, we live in
the world of happenings which we know at first hand.  This is an extremely
small world, consisting only of that continuum of the things that we have
actually seen, felt, or heard -- the flow of events constantly passing
before our senses.  So far as this world of personal experience is
concerned, Africa, South America, Asia, Washington, New York, or Los
Angeles do not exist if we have never been to these places...  When we ask
ourselves how much we know at first hand, we discover that we know very
little indeed.
 
"Most of our knowledge, acquired from parents, friends, schools,
newspapers, books, conversations, speeches, and television, is received
VERBALLY.  All our knowledge of history, for example, comes to us only in
words.  The only proof we have that the Battle of Waterloo ever took place
is that we have had reports to that effect.  These reports are not given us
by people who saw it happen, but are based on other reports: reports of
reports of reports, which go back ultimately to the first-hand reports
given by people who did see it happening.  It is through reports, then, and
through reports of reports, that we receive most knowledge: about
government, about what is happening in the Middle East, about what picture
is showing at the downtown theater -- in fact, about anything that we do
not know through direct experience.
 
"Let us call this world that comes to us through words the VERBAL WORLD, as
opposed to the world we know or are capable of knowing through our own
experience, which we shall call the EXTENSIONAL WORLD..."
 
Hayakawa then goes on to build exquisite models of "MAPS" versus
"TERRITORIES".  The challenge that Eric faces seems to be related to
building "maps" (theoretical naming-oriented things) that are as helpful as
possible while people go around their business in the "territories" (the
"real" things, whatever they may be).  I believe that Eric will find lots
of food for thought in this gem of a book.
 
 
Meanwhile, HP3000 programmers, don't name your variables "foo" and
"foobar":  Name them JumboSetStatus or so :-)
 
 
Happy naming!
 
 
 
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