
Unfortunately-Named Programming Terms - luu
https://github.com/jab/unfortunately-named-programming-terms
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ggchappell
Yes, this is an issue. Couple of thoughts:

(A) The second and third definitions of "key" are not different. We talk about
"private key" and "public key". A _key_ in this sense is information provided
to a transformation algorithm to tell it how to do the transformation. If we
do not wish others to be able to do the transformation, then we keep the key
secret. The secrecy should not be part of the definition of "key".

(B) What about _key_ as in "sorting key"? That's a bit like definition 1, but
not quite.

(C) An issue that feels related to me is when all synonyms for a particular
concept are defined as technical terms, and we run out of words to use. Say I
want to talk about what "type of thing" something is. I can't use "type"; that
means something very specific. So does "sort". So does "category". So does
"class". I used to use "kind", but then somebody made a technical term out of
that, too.[1] What's left? "Breed"? "Ilk"?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_%28type_theory%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_%28type_theory%29)

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aardshark
I don't agree with the 'difficult to google' label, because you can easily
find relevant results on all of these terms through Google.

~~~
jpzenger
Maybe if you know the right incantations to whisper to your search engine, but
remember that beginners often won't. And even then, overloaded terms like
"set" and "map" routinely yield bogus results for non-beginners too. The point
is realizing you have to jump through these hoops, when Stockholm Syndrome may
be preventing you from even noticing. See also
[https://twitter.com/dakami/status/593325912663326720](https://twitter.com/dakami/status/593325912663326720)

