From: Dave Howell <groups@...>
Date: 2005-12-13T18:35:40+09:00
Subject: Re: About class methods


On Dec 12, 2005, at 0:07, Chad Perrin wrote:

> By the way . . . has anyone considered a name like "singular"?  What
> about "ad lib" instead of "ad hoc"?
>
> I've gotta say, though, that I'm partial to the descriptor "eigen".

Well, I'm having a terrible time following the distinction between the 
indefinite number of flavors of this difficult-to-name type of method, 
but I do know something about naming things. :)

Generally, trying to find an existing term, like 'singleton' or 'ad 
hoc', is a good thing, because lets somebody bring pre-constructed 
expectations to the process, hopefully saving them time in learning how 
this particular thing works.

Unless, of course, different people have different expectations for 
that word, or if the thing in question contradicts the expectations in 
some way.

If 'simpleton' and 'singleton' are equally applicable to either of two 
different cases, as somebody suggested earlier, then these will lead 
people to *think* they know what will happen, but there's a 50/50 
chance that it will be the other. So that's not a good thing. There 
appears to be some concern that "ad hoc" implies something much broader 
(?) than this particular usage actually has. That's not a good thing.

If you have a situation where none of the existing reasonable terms 
seem like an adequately non-confusing match, then it's actually much 
better to use a term that *doesn't* bring a lot of pre-conceived 
baggage to the table. If you create a term that's *obviously* 
meaningless or ambiguous, then the first-time user knows right away 
that they'll have to look it up, instead of erroneously thinking they 
know what it does just because of the name. Calling them something like 
"intral methods", "uni methods", "anonic methods," or "eigenz" is 
better than using a "real" pre-existing word that is a poor fit. "Hmm. 
Uni methods. Well, I have a hunch what that might be for, but it isn't 
immediately obvious. I'll just have to read more about it to find out 
what they actually do."