Naming suggestions

[Daniel Herring]

On Thu, 4 Feb 2016, Antoniotti Marco wrote:

> I am trying to come up with a name for a referencing/dereferencing 
> operator.

There are a bunch of names for such things: reference, address, pointer, 
index, iterator, register, mark, tag, location, ID, name, alias, link, 
key, position, slot, hole, stash, ...

Each of these has different semantic traditions.  Without context, it is 
hard to tell which evokes the "right" connotation.


> Think of something like
>
> (<name-of-reference-operator> #2A((1 0) (0 1)) 0 0) ==> 1
>
> or
>
> (<name-of-reference-operator> #H((foo . bar) (we . 42)) ‘foo) ==> BAR

These example indicate names like "key" or "lookup".  GET, FIND, SEARCH, 
... are clearly taken.


> I am re-doing stuff in a DSL built upon CL ... where the overall goal is 
> to offer other users what they may be used to.

Are these users coming from CL or another language?  (Changes what they 
may be used to.)  Do they already have lingo for this concept?


> Maybe “indexing operator" is a better characterization.

The abbreviation "indop" is short, uncommon (no collisions or baggage), 
pronouncable, and mnemonic.  From a quick search, Indonesians may be the 
only ones facing any level of potential confusion.


- Daniel