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1vuio0pswjnm7today at 12:16 AM0 repliesview on HN

Nitpick: Correct me if wrong but I think cat is catenate not concatenate

IMHO, the best names are the ones that are easiest to type. I have read several accounts of authors choosing names for this reason

I sometimes rename other peoples' executables (cf. libraries), not the ones in the traditional UNIX userland, but the ones with goofy names.^1 I will rename them to something I find easier to type and less annoying. I create symbolic links with the original names if I think they will be required^2

With own software, I give every program a number, the source file is named according to the number and the executable name is a short prefix followed by the number. All names are the same length. I have a text file that lists what each program does if I forget

I put a description in a comment at the top of each source file as a sort of header. Then I can do something like

   head src/???.l  
for a list of descriptions

1. Needless to say, Arthur Whitney's software does not get renamed. No need, he gets it

2. I will also rewrite the argument parsing and "usage:" output if it annoys me

The best way to determine what a program does is to read the source. This is one reason I prefer to compile programs from source instead of using "binary packages"

I also think the names that are chosen for so-called "tech" companies are routinely quite silly, but that's another discussion