Xapian devel - Apr 2014 - Eleven, twelve; dig and delve (name conflict)

Thanks for your polite enquiry.  I think it would be inconvenient for our
users to move delve out of the search path, but I don't think that's
actually the main problem here.

delve is quite widely packaged, I think, and has been around for very many
years, so the problem is that you'll find that there are a lot of systems
around with it installed, many from operating systems and distributions
that we (as Xapian) don't have any direct knowledge of.  I think it would
take a long time to find all such distributions, let alone to change the
installed location of delve on them.

Put plainly, if you reuse the delve name, you're likely to get a load of
bug reports from confused users saying that delve doesn't work or accept
the options your documentation says, due to users getting our version of
delve instead of yours.

We're also likely to receive similar reports the other way round, so my
personal opinion is that it would be better for you to try and find a
different name.

Sorry not to be more helpful

-- 
Richard


On 21 April 2014 23:14, Chuck Aurora <cba at isc.org> wrote:
> Hello Xapian people, I come to you, hat in hand, on behalf of a
> fellow Free Software project: ISC's BIND 9.
>
> If you're very familiar with DNS, you probably know our main DNS
> troubleshooting tool: dig(1), the Domain Information Groper. This has
> been an important part of BIND since forever.
>
> We're about to release (remember! You heard it here first!!) our
> newest branch of the BIND9 family, BIND 9.10.0, which includes a
> fabulously cool new Domain Entity Lookup and Validation Engine
> command-line tool, which we named ... you guessed it ... delve.
>
> One of our friends from the Debian project pointed out that you
> already use that name here. Hmmm, the name "delve" certainly also
> makes sense in terms of search engine software, we must admit.
>
> But long ago was this:
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One,_Two,_Buckle_My_Shoe
>
> So we thought our name was pretty cool, since dig and delve will
> hereafter be a team. Where dig is about sending individual queries to
> individual name servers, delve is about sending all the queries
> necessary to get the best answer, validate it, and report on anything
> that went wrong.  So where dig can be used for troubleshooting a
> particular name server, delve is for troubleshooting whole-system
> problems in which multiple servers have to be consistent with each
> another -- lame delegations, DS/DNSKEY mismatches, things like that.
>
> We do NOT wish to step on anyone's toes, and we certainly did not
> intend any disrespect for your project here. We simply did not know
> about your delve tool.
>
> I looked at your wiki:
>     http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/PackagingXapian
> which says that delve is something a packager might want to include.
> Would it be a problem for your users if your delve was installed
> somewhere outside the search path, i.e., under /usr/share/xapian ?
>
> I'm sure the packagers can come up with alternatives. Likewise, we
> are willing to entertain alternate naming suggestions for our delve
> tool. (Extra credit for nursery rhyme references. Double extra
> credit where the name is also an acronym. Triple if "dig" is also
> mentioned.)
>
> But we figured there could come no harm from asking you if you would
> consider moving and/or renaming your delve tool.
>
> Thanks for your time, and best wishes.
> --
>     Chuck Aurora : ISC Software Support : cba at isc.org
>     Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xapian-devel mailing list
> Xapian-devel at lists.xapian.org
> http://lists.xapian.org/mailman/listinfo/xapian-devel
>
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On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 07:48:44AM +0100, Richard Boulton
wrote:
> Sorry not to be more helpful
No, Richard, you were helpful by being right. Even if you had loved 
our name as much as we did, troubles would ensue for your users and 
ours. What if someone asked us to change the name of dig? Even if we 
agreed, BIND's dig has been out there for 20 years.

We considered our options carefully. Some of the suggestions were 
very good. None were as perfect as "delve".

Introducing the second release candidate of the newest branch of the 
BIND9 family, BIND 9.10.0rc2, which includes a fabulously cool new 
Domain Entity Lookup and Validation command-line tool, which we NOW 
call "delv". This will be available for download shortly at:
	http://ftp.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.10.0rc2/

And at this point we have to award an Honorable Mention to Will 
Crawford of this mailing list. Will presented one of the best 
alternate name suggestions, complete with a relevant nursery rhyme 
reference. Thank you, Will.

And thank you all for the kind and cordial response to what might 
have been considered a bold request. Best wishes.
-- 
    Chuck Aurora : ISC Software Support : cba at isc.org
    Internet Systems Consortium, Inc.