from Hacker News

Renaming Coq

by sidechaining on 5/8/21, 7:38 PM with 24 comments

• by lokr on 5/9/21, 10:44 AM

  It is misguided to ban all homonyms that offend English speakers. How would you even do it in practice?

  1) The last name of the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant is pronounced like "cunt". How do they give a philosophy Kant course in the US?

  2) Why do French girls have to say "bit twiddling" but American girls need to be protected from "Coq"?

  3) The reason for the rename initiative is apparently a misunderstanding by an Uber driver when hearing the word. I'd humbly suggest not to use the word in a cab, just as you wouldn't say "I'm taking a Kant course in college" in a cab. Context matters.

  4) It is not up to Americans to eradicate European words in European projects.

• by jobigoud on 5/9/21, 8:30 AM

  The ubiquitous computing term "bit" means cock in French, should it be changed as well? /s

• by beermonster on 5/9/21, 6:35 AM

  I used to get strange looks when I'd recommend people use 'The GIMP'.

• by junon on 5/9/21, 3:00 AM

  I always thought it was Co-Q. I thought surely no way it was pronounced "cock".

  Welp. I think this is a good move.

• by deadite on 5/9/21, 5:14 AM

  Well, there go all the PCJ jokes :(