java software naming question

[mcheung63]

Hi
My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to name their software with a "s" ending, suchs as : windows, google docs.
What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound? If my software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is hard to say that word?

thanks
from Peter

 

[Aryeh M. Friedman]

Hi

My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to name their software with a "s" ending, suchs as : windows, google docs.

What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound? If my software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is hard to say that word?



thanks

from Peter

No we just like making stuff plural (I don't but marketing people seem to like it)

 

[Aryeh M. Friedman]

Hi

My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to name their software with a "s" ending, suchs as : windows, google docs.

What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound? If my software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is hard to say that word?

Also note that there are plenty of programs that are not pluralized like most java based applications (tomcats ikkkk!!)

 

[Muco]

Hi
My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to name
their software with a "s" ending, suchs as : windows, google docs.
What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound? If
my software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is
hard to say that word?

Most definitely correct. People in western internet love to name their
software with 's' ending. Apart from it being easier to pronounce,
ending a word with 's' helps prevent saliva being ejected from
speaker's mouth into the face of listener. For example, ending a word
with 'p' results in much saliva being ejected. Saliva spray can spread
disease.

 

[Aryeh M. Friedman]

I think the general rule is that if the software named for something

user visible for which the user will see multiple instances it is likely

to have a plural name.

Simpler explanation marketing people are clueless ;-)

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

An MS Windows system does not just have one window. Google Documents did
not just support one document. Google switched to singular for Google
Drive, presumably because all of a given user's documents appear to be
on one virtual drive.

I think the general rule is that if the software named for something
user visible for which the user will see multiple instances it is likely
to have a plural name.

True in general.

Counterexample: Microsoft Word.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Magnus Warker]

True in general.

Counterexample: Microsoft Word.

Cool! Is it java software?

Magnus

 

[markspace]

Cool! Is it java software?

I prefer to call it Javas. Because the s makes it easier to say. Also
I use softwares, because there's more than one. Also I say Microsoft
Words, because it's easier to say and there's more than one words.

Honestly, I think we're being trolled, but the point is if you don't
know English, hire a translator.

 

[Lew]

My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to name their software with a "s" ending,
suchs as : windows, google docs.
What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound?

"Windows" and "Google Docs" are trademarked names, so that's why we pronounce the "s".

If the product names were "Window" and "Google Doc" we wouldn't.

If my name were "James", you'd pronounce the "s" at the end. My name is "Lew", so you don't.

If my software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is hard to say that word?

Which peoples do you include as "Western"?

I have no problem pronouncing words that do not end in "s", and I'm from the United States.
For example, I find "Lew" very easy to pronounce.

 

[Lew]

Most definitely correct. People in western internet love to name their

Muco here is lying to you. Do not believe him.

Muco, us here do not think your post was amusing.

 

[Eric Sosman]

I don't. I think it's one of the more interesting off-topic (but there's
nothing wrong with that in moderation, and as long as it's interesting)
questions I've seen for a while.

I wish I had a persuasive hypothesis to offer in return, but -- at least to
date -- I haven't been able to think of one.

-- chris

P.S. remember, programming is /all about/ communication. Names matter.

That's why we have super-descriptive names like "Java," which
communicates the ideas "Big island in Indonesia" and "Body of water
adjoining Borneo" and "Language also known as Javanese."

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to name
their software with a "s" ending, suchs as : windows, google docs.
What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound? If my
software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is hard
to say that word?

Some end with a 's' - some don't.

Given that many use plural in their product naming and that such
ends with a 's', then the probability of product names ending
with a 's' is much higher than if it was random.

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Which peoples do you include as "Western"?

I have no problem pronouncing words that do not end in "s", and I'm from the United States.
For example, I find "Lew" very easy to pronounce.

I don't, but ...



Arne

 

[Lew]

I don't, but ...

It's pronounced like the British slang word for the water closet: "loo".

 

[Roedy Green]

My name is Peter, Asisn, In internet, western people love to

name their software with a "s" ending, suchs as : windows, google
docs.

What is the reason? Is it easier to pronounce with a "s" sound?

If my software doesn't end with a "s", will western people think it is
hard to say that word?

S means plural. Windows has many windows.

It some languages you don't specify the plurality unless it is
important or unobvious. You might double the word, or use a
quantifier.

English is obsessed with plurality/number. You can't say anything
without being specific. It is similarly obsessed with gender.

 

[Lew]

English is obsessed with plurality/number. You can't say anything
without being specific. It is similarly obsessed with gender.

Unlike French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and a host of other languages,
English does not have much in the way of feminine vs. masculine distinctions.

So how is that "obsessed with gender"?

Doesn't every language have a way of expressing "more than one"?

How can a language be "obsessed"?

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

That's why we have super-descriptive names like "Java," which
communicates the ideas "Big island in Indonesia" and "Body of water
adjoining Borneo" and "Language also known as Javanese."

... and coffee.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Roedy Green]

That's why we have super-descriptive names like "Java," which
communicates the ideas "Big island in Indonesia" and "Body of water
adjoining Borneo" and "Language also known as Javanese."

Place to grow great coffee. Programmers like good coffee and work
long hours by staying alert drinking it. Programmers want a computer
language they associate with good coffee. Let's call it Java. The
original logo was a steaming cup of coffee.

 

[Roedy Green]

So how is that "obsessed with gender"?

Consider the sentence.

He made a pot of Sumatran coffee.

She made a pot of Sumatran coffee.

I am constrained by English to specify the flavour of genitals of the
coffee maker even though it is completely irrelevant to the process of
making coffee. That I call obsession with gender.

English has another obsession. I discovered it when I learned
Esperanto which is even more obsessed. TIME. You can't talk about
anything happening without specifying past, present, future. You can
though say that something habitually happens, without specifying when.

You can in Chinese. If tense is important to be explicit, you add some
adverb. E.g. I come tomorrow.

You notice Asian speakers, often say strange things like
my wife, he sick.
Frog die.
Please give 12 egg.

To them gender, tense, and plurality need not be specified. They are
implied.

Esperanto is like English in its concern with precise tense, gender
and plurality. It has some other obsessions of its own, roughly
equivalent to direct/indirect object though it has many other uses.

I suppose Mandarin might become the next interlanguage as English
fades. Bahasa Indonesia was an early attempt at an interlanguage
devised by traders moving between thousands of islands. It is easy to
pronounce, and has a relatively simple grammar.
I don't know much about Mandarin other than the code I wrote at
http://mindprod.com/products.html#INWORDS to convert integers into
words, including Mandarin. It was the simplest of all languages I
tackled (Icelandic was the hairiest). I gather the difficulties are
pronunciation and the many many synonyms for the same word.
(Makes for great fun with puns).

 

[Joshua Cranmer]

Unlike French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and a host of other languages,
English does not have much in the way of feminine vs. masculine distinctions.

So how is that "obsessed with gender"?

I expect he's actually referring to the fact that English possessives
agree in gender with the possessor instead of the possessed, as would
happen in, say, French. This can make third-person gender-neutral
constructs hard to complete: think about how you should complete the
following sentence: The student did not turn in ____ homework.

In contrast to Romance languages and many others, English in general
distinguishes much less between male and female versions of, say, an
occupation: in French, you'd have to pick between étudiant and
étudiante. Also note that we have a single third-person plural variant
("they", which can also be used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun,
although some would frown at such a usage [1]), in contrast between
French where you are forced to pick between "ils" and "elles."

As for obsessed about number, note that we do not distinguish between
singular and plural second-person and have not for 400-500 years. "They"
does a remarkably good job about conveying uncertainty about number as
well as gender too, and it wouldn't surprise me if it became more
prevalent in singular third-person in 400 years.

Note, however, that this kind of inflectional agreement in English is
largely limited to the various inflections of pronouns; in many Romance
languages, inflection is required on adjectives and the verbs themselves.

[1] Singular they has even been used by Shakespeare, so I would
personally classify attempts to outlaw it on the same level as those who
hate sentences ending in prepositions: it may be bad style, but
incorrect English it is not.