On Wednesday 02 March 2011 05:06:40 David C. Rankin wrote:
Curious about a strange package name with an interesting definition prompted a bit of investigation:
20:48 zephyr:~> rpm -qa | grep ontologies shared-desktop-ontologies-0.3-1.6.noarch shared-desktop-ontologies-devel-0.3-1.6.noarch
20:49 zephyr:~> rpm -qi shared-desktop-ontologies Name : shared-desktop-ontologies Relocations: (not relocatable) Version : 0.3 Vendor: openSUSE Release : 1.6 Build Date: Mon 05 Jul 2010 05:10:38 PM CDT <snip> Summary : Shared Desktop Ontologies Description : Open Semantic Collaboration Architecture Foundation (OSCAF) ontologies and reference code development. This project is used by maintainers from open source projects to maintain standards for the interoperability of desktop and web applications.
A bit of further looking disclosed:
"Ontologies necessary for the Nepomuk semantic desktop"
I'm all for having a rich and diverse vocabulary, but reaching so far back into the Greek vernacular... I just have to ask, "What were they thinking...?"
Think about it - "Open Semantic Collaboration Architecture Foundation (OSCAF) ontologies and reference code development." -- That's a mouthful.
What happened to simplicity? I have enough trouble remembering: 'at', 'grep', 'diff', 'sed', 'awk' and 'patch', much less "Open Semantic Collaboration Architecture Foundation (OSCAF) ontologies and reference code development."
I take my hat off to the originator. That is one bit of creative linguistics -- second to none ;p
It's the fashiion, don't you know. The assignment of non-mnemonic nomenclature adds a bit of toniness to an desktop manager, like telling an "in" joke that few will understand. But the use of short nonsense syllables (awk, grep) has about run its course, thus we have Akonadi (the origin of which most people, even in KDE, have not got quite right), Nepomuk (perhaps a technique by means of which Eskimos prepare blubber for storage and later consumption), and Plasma (the KDE use of which has no connection with any recognized lexical description, but is the result of one person's subjective reaction to something -- who knows to what?). Far from indicating a wide vocabulary or wide knowledge of third-world mythological structures, I think the basis for these is a lack of the imagination required to devise names that might actually trigger an association to the use or the purpose of the underlying software. In other words, it's the exact opposite of genuinely 'creative linguistics'. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org