
Unicorn - monsur
http://getunicorn.io/
======
pak
Could they have possibly picked a _more_ confusing name?

1\. Unicorn for Ruby: <http://unicorn.bogomips.org/>

2\. Green Unicorn for Python: <http://gunicorn.org/>

The fact that this is an HTTP request library, as opposed to a server, is what
pushes this into serious troll territory. The only saving grace here is that
Java programmers searching for this library might come upon one of the other
two and realize what they are missing.

Edit: A Ruby and a Python library, named unicorn-rest and unicorn
respectively, are built into this project. This is madness.

~~~
zampano
I clicked and just assumed it was the Ruby server, I've even seen that logo
used in conjunction with Unicorn before. Did they just not google the name at
all before diving in?

~~~
IanChiles
I'm pretty certain that that's the error message Github gives when something
goes wrong with Unicorn (The Ruby one, that is)...

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tptacek
Extremely confusing name, given that Unicorn happens to be the name of both an
extremely popular Ruby web server and its extremely popular Python port.

~~~
nijiko
My little cousin decided it and I didn't have the heart to break his...

~~~
cheald
I sympathize, but at least use a variant on it. Picking that name _and_ logo
for an HTTP request library with Ruby and Python bindings is extremely bad
form given that there's an existing HTTP _server_ project that uses that name
and is associated with that logo.

~~~
nijiko
Yes, I think I will be giving him some bad news today unfortunately.

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dljsjr
I'm going to operate completely under the assumption that the library authors
didn't choose the Unicorn name with intentional malice, and that their
motivations were entirely benevolent. It looks like a nice enough library,
congrats on all of your hard work.

That said, this name is going to foster a lot of ill will in the community,
for all of the reasons already mentioned:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597411>

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597402>

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597455>

Additionally, as has been mentioned, the GitHub Angry Unicorn, whether
permission was given or not, is most likely related to the fact that GitHub
uses the Unicorn Rack server and are proponents of the software. In addition,
the Ruby port of this library presents itself as "unicorn-rest", which could
very easily be interpreted as either disingenuous or as a form of "coat-tail
riding" off the name/notoriety of the existing Unicorn.

~~~
jrabone
Ill will with the Ruby community, maybe, but fuck 'em. As long as it's unique
in the Maven namespace, I don't care and neither should they/you.

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daxelrod
All right, I'm confused. I thought this was a new site for
<http://unicorn.bogomips.org/> , the Rack HTTP server. This was further
reinforced by the use of the angry unicorn logo which GitHub used in their
article on the Unicorn Rack HTTP server [1].

If I'm reading this right, though, this is an HTTP _client_ library. The
docs[2] say

    
    
      > If you are wondering why we aren't using the
      > Unicorn namespace for ruby it is because it's
      > already taken by the awesome Eric Wong's mostly
      > pure-Ruby HTTP backend
    

This looks like a case of two different pieces of software, both of which
speak HTTP, and both named Unicorn.

[1]<https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn>

[2]<http://getunicorn.io/?language=Ruby>

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kaolinite
Hm, that's the Github unicorn. I wonder if they have permission.

[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksc5rubkMt1qz5pz6o1_500.pn...](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksc5rubkMt1qz5pz6o1_500.png)

~~~
nijiko
We do! It's owned by Daniel Shaw, who I got permission from to use in an open-
source project.

~~~
kaolinite
Ah good, nice of him and good of you to obtain it :-)

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jrabone
Christ, the responses on here are absolutely what you'd expect from anyone
remotely connected with the Ruby "community" - or at least a bunch of people
who don't have sufficient experience with Java to comment on whether a fluent
API is an improvement on the Apache HttpClient API, or HttpURLConnection (God
help us, despite what Android devs think). When you've finished pissing on the
colour scheme, or questioning whether the logo is a "rip off" (clue: used by
permission), perhaps you can all go back to upgrading Rails, or stacking your
gems in reverse version-number order, or whatever it is you do.

Also - Java. It's the FIFTH word on the page reading Western-style. How the
hell can you miss it? Too eager to get to the comments tab?

~~~
johns
It's Java, PHP, Python, Ruby AND Objective-C. I think the naming criticisms
are fair.

~~~
jrabone
Can't hear anyone else over the sound of the Ruby people...

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existentialmutt
This strikes me as intentionally misleading. They're using the github angry
unicorn pic.

GH is a noted proponent of Unicorn the ruby app server.
<https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn>

~~~
anonfunction
It's actually Daniel Shaw's logo and he has given us (and GitHub I presume)
permission to use it.

Sorry for the confusion, we really dropped the ball.

~~~
adrianpike
It is? <https://twitter.com/dshaw/status/326795177584914432>

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ismaelc
Hi guys, this is Chris from Mashape. Thanks for all the comments and
suggestions. We acknowledge the naming hoopla and are working hard to resolve
it. But in behalf of Mashape I'd like to assure everyone that the library was
created with the purpose of helping developers with cross platform HTTP
requests. As such, we would like to invite everyone on 2 things: 1) Suggest a
new name/branding for Unicorn, and 2) Contribute/suggest/fix the library as
you see fit :) You can write to me directly too! chris@mashape.com . Looking
forward to your comments!

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JimmaDaRustla
Nice to see a multi-language HTTP library, but I won't be stepping away from
python-requests.org anytime soon.

~~~
pudquick
100% agree on this one. Probably the only thing that immediately appealed to
me for this project's python version was the integrated asynchronous requests
capability.

With version v0.13.0+ of python-requests, async functionality was split out by
the maintainer to <https://github.com/kennethreitz/grequests> (and it's a
light wrapper over requests + gevent).

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calinet6
Just throwing in my vote for changing your name.

My first thought was "You're kidding, right?"

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monsur
Naming aside, I think there is some value in a fluent, cross-language
methodology for making HTTP requests. While each library adheres to the
conventions of its specific language, the overall pattern for making requests
looks the same across languages. If you are someone working with APIs in
different languages, there is value in having this consistency.

~~~
rhizome
I don't think anybody would say that that consistency would be useless. Now,
about the name...

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jagthedrummer
Definitely needs a name change. This was an incredibly poor choice and makes
me question whether I could ever feel comfortable using the software of an
entire organization that is capable of making such a poor choice. Especially
since they admit that they _knew_ it would be confusing.

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anonfunction
Everyone, we are listening! We are throwing around new names but they all
suck. Any ideas?

~~~
willismichael
Centaur, Minotaur, Pegasus, Satyr, Gryphon...

~~~
willismichael
If you want to go with Gryphon, here's a nice piece of open-source artwork:
[http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$mo...](http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$monsters$transparent$gryphon.png)

~~~
nijiko
Wow, are you sure this is open-source? We are going over names and this one
seems the fastest to replace unicorn with.

~~~
willismichael
Yeah, it's from Battle for Wesnoth (www.wesnoth.org), all of their core
artwork is GPL2 licensed. If I remember right, there is some talk in their
forums encouraging other open source games to use their artwork. If you are
interested you ought to look around their community for the right person to
ask permission.

EDIT: Found a related forum discussion:
[http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34892&...](http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34892&p=505075)

~~~
anonfunction
Thanks so much! We ended up going with Unirest, which we think is a great fit
for the project. I just wanted to say I appreciate your help.

~~~
willismichael
Ok! Now you know where to get the artwork if you ever want to name an open
source project "Gryphon" ;)

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dschep
Aside from the name crazyness this seems like a very thin layer on top of
existing libraries to create a shared API across languages.

Being mainly a Python dev, I see little reason to use it instead of Requests.
It has a similar API for the basic verbs but nothing else.

A quick glance at the code indicates to me that it doesn't have alot of the
other features requests has (eg: simpler auth, cookies. builtin connection
pooling). And worse it will explode on large a large response[1]

[1] [https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-
python/blob/master/unicor...](https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-
python/blob/master/unicorn/__init__.py#L70)

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danielmagnusson
Looks really good, only need a name change..

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mrinterweb
The name alone of this project is very frustrating. As pointed out, there is
ruby application server named Unicorn that is quite popular. The ruby
application server has the exact same logo except this project chose to flip
the logo. This is intentionally confusing. I might be able to appreciate this
library if they chose a different name and image, but I can't support a
project that is intentionally leading to confusion. It is so bad that it seems
like this project is trying to be an imposter of an original project. Is there
no shame in open source?

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jack-r-abbit
Of the supported languages, I only know PHP so I can't comment on the others.
(and I don't really care what name/logo it uses) It looks like pretty clean
work. However, this task has never really been a problem for me in PHP so I'm
not likely to use it. But kudos to the author for trying to help out fellow
programmers. And good luck.

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middayc
I think I'll never be able to switch to "libs have designed websites w/ logos
and marketing messages" crowd. Probably getting old. This one with unreadable
pink code font and blinking was specifically hard to look at. Consider this as
friendly feedback please.

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mythz
I personally like my HTTP Util thin DRY extensions over .NET WebRequest better
- more readable and concise and you retain access to the underlying
HttpWebRequest so you don't lose any flexibility:

<https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack/wiki/Http-Utils>

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coolsunglasses
The text isn't very readable.

~~~
andyfleming
It looks like part of the line
"<url>[http://maven.mashape.com/releases</url>](http://maven.mashape.com/releases</url>)
is being made into a lighter pink because of the "//" being marked as a
single-line comment by the syntax highlighter.

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sinzone
Some suggestions on the new name?

\- uniape

\- mashcorn

\- cornmash

\- unimashape

\- Restape

\- RestMash

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skytalon
A name suggestion:

slighttp (from Simple LIGHTweight HTTP) (Just 205 results on google)

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ahknight
That web design challenges manhood.

And yet another confusing name. Yay.

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sinzone
We hear you! We're updating everything right now.

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alpb
This one should get a CocoaPods package ASAP.

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gfalcao
This is hilarious

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wedtm
I hate to add another nail to the name coffin, but I instantly thought this
was regarding the ruby unicorn web server. I continued to think this until I
came back to the comments to verify.

