[llvm-commits] CVS: llvm-www/Name.html
Reid Spencer
reid at x10sys.com
Thu Apr 12 19:24:09 PDT 2007
Changes in directory llvm-www:
Name.html updated: 1.2 -> 1.3
---
Log message:
Fix validation errors.
---
Diffs of the changes: (+51 -44)
Name.html | 95 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------------
1 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 44 deletions(-)
Index: llvm-www/Name.html
diff -u llvm-www/Name.html:1.2 llvm-www/Name.html:1.3
--- llvm-www/Name.html:1.2 Thu Apr 12 21:21:20 2007
+++ llvm-www/Name.html Thu Apr 12 21:23:52 2007
@@ -15,49 +15,51 @@
we are looking for an umbrella name for the collection of compiler, tool chain
and virtual machine related things that we call LLVM today. As Chris put it:</p>
- <blockquote>"LLVM is a growing project, and many of us are very fond of it. :) LLVM
- is continuing to grow, both in maturity in specific areas and in the scope of
- areas to which it applies.</blockquote>
-
- <blockquote>When we first started the project, we focused on the design of the
- intermediate representation (IR). It is a strong design goal that the IR be a
- self-contained virtual instruction set, which fully describes a program.
- Because of this, we named the compiler LLVM, which reflects well on the
- design of the IR.</blockquote>
-
- <blockquote>However, the scope of the LLVM project has outgrown this name. Today
- LLVM does many "non-VMy" tasks, such as serving as a great static
- compiler. It also has components that overlap with traditional low-level
- tool chain components like assemblers and linkers. Further, LLVM's scope
- is about to grow significantly with new front-end technologies (e.g. HLVM,
- new SoC work on a python front-end, etc). For all of these reasons, I
- think that "LLVM" is an increasingly poor name for the project as a whole,
- and it causes a large amount of confusion, particularly with people who
- do not know much about it yet.</blockquote>
-
- <blockquote>For what it is worth, this is not a new thought. I have been kicking
- around the idea of renaming the project for several years now, but have
- been stymied by not being able to come up with a better name! The problem
- is hard: how do you concisely describe a modern, modular, component based
- compiler and tool-chain system, which can be used for many different
- things, hopefully many of which we haven't even thought of yet? How do
- you pick a name that both memberable, relatively unique (searchable), has
- an open domain name, etc? How do you come up with a name that is amenable
- to making a logo? So far, I haven't! :)</blockquote>
-
- <blockquote>Note that the name need not capture every aspect of the project. Just
- having a distinguished name with no specific connotation is probably good
- enough. 20 years ago, "google" and "yahoo" had very different meanings,
- and "mozilla" or "firefox" were pretty meaningless. Today, there is very
- strong awareness of what they are.</blockquote>
-
- <blockquote>As such, I'd like to open up a forum for naming ideas.</blockquote>
-
- <blockquote>To make this more fun, "success" is extremely subjective, and I have no
- idea how we will declare a victor (we can figure it out as we go, right?
- :). I propose that people add ideas to this pageand we kick some potential
- names around at the developer mtg in May. That gives us 5 or 6 weeks to
- come up with a name and/or logo."</blockquote>
+ <blockquote>
+ <p>"LLVM is a growing project, and many of us are very fond of it. :) LLVM
+ is continuing to grow, both in maturity in specific areas and in the scope of
+ areas to which it applies.</p>
+
+ <p>When we first started the project, we focused on the design of the
+ intermediate representation (IR). It is a strong design goal that the IR be a
+ self-contained virtual instruction set, which fully describes a program.
+ Because of this, we named the compiler LLVM, which reflects well on the
+ design of the IR.</p>
+
+ <p>However, the scope of the LLVM project has outgrown this name. Today
+ LLVM does many "non-VMy" tasks, such as serving as a great static
+ compiler. It also has components that overlap with traditional low-level
+ tool chain components like assemblers and linkers. Further, LLVM's scope
+ is about to grow significantly with new front-end technologies (e.g. HLVM,
+ new SoC work on a python front-end, etc). For all of these reasons, I
+ think that "LLVM" is an increasingly poor name for the project as a whole,
+ and it causes a large amount of confusion, particularly with people who
+ do not know much about it yet.</p>
+
+ <p>For what it is worth, this is not a new thought. I have been kicking
+ around the idea of renaming the project for several years now, but have
+ been stymied by not being able to come up with a better name! The problem
+ is hard: how do you concisely describe a modern, modular, component based
+ compiler and tool-chain system, which can be used for many different
+ things, hopefully many of which we haven't even thought of yet? How do
+ you pick a name that both memberable, relatively unique (searchable), has
+ an open domain name, etc? How do you come up with a name that is amenable
+ to making a logo? So far, I haven't! :)</p>
+
+ <p>Note that the name need not capture every aspect of the project. Just
+ having a distinguished name with no specific connotation is probably good
+ enough. 20 years ago, "google" and "yahoo" had very different meanings,
+ and "mozilla" or "firefox" were pretty meaningless. Today, there is very
+ strong awareness of what they are.</p>
+
+ <p>As such, I'd like to open up a forum for naming ideas.</p>
+
+ <p>To make this more fun, "success" is extremely subjective, and I have no
+ idea how we will declare a victor (we can figure it out as we go, right?
+ :). I propose that people add ideas to this pageand we kick some potential
+ names around at the developer mtg in May. That gives us 5 or 6 weeks to
+ come up with a name and/or logo."</p>
+ </blockquote>
<p>With that in mind, this page is all about finding a new name for the
project.</p>
@@ -86,16 +88,19 @@
some time number of years to come so that we do not lose the brand
recognition we've developed with LLVM. For example: "Use the Foo/LLVM
Compiler System, it runs infinite loops faster than the competition!".</li>
+
<li><b>Avoid VM</b>. We would like to avoid "VM" in the name. Because of the
/LLVM suffix it would be redundant for some period of time. Also, while the
project will retain components that allow you to make a VM, it isn't really
"just" a VM, its much more. In other words, labeling the project VM is
too limiting. The projects scope has outstripped being just a VM.</li>
+
<li><b>Figurative</b>. We would like to stay away from acronyms unless a
really good one comes along. We don't want to replace LLVM with another
acronym that out-dates itself in a few years. Instead a name that is
metaphorical or figurative or otherwise conjures up the notion of LLVM would
be best.</li>
+
<li><b>Made Up Names</b>. You can also just make up a name. Some of the best
brands have been
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau">portmanteau words</a>
@@ -104,11 +109,13 @@
example. So can you find the perfect portmanteau words that describe this
project? You can find a big list of examples
<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:List_of_portmanteaux">here</a></li>
+
<li><b>Connotations</b>. The name should have a connotation that is
descriptive of the project as a whole. Some connotations that would be
appropriate are: components, fast, toolkit, optimizing, languages, building
blocks, etc. Many other characteristics could apply, these are just a
few.</li>
+
<li><b>Logos</b>. Logos will need to be developed as well. Keep that in mind
as you think of names. Can a logo be developed? If you have graphical
talents, please send a JPEG/GIF to go with your name idea.</li>
@@ -221,6 +228,6 @@
src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!"></a>
-<br/>Last modified: $Date: 2007/04/13 02:21:20 $
+<br/>Last modified: $Date: 2007/04/13 02:23:52 $
</address>
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