From sef@sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu Thu Oct 28 11:53:56 EDT 1993 Article: 13436 of cmu.cs.general Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu cmu.cs.general:13436 Newsgroups: cmu.cs.general Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!honeydew.srv.cs.cmu.edu!news From: sef@sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu Subject: Igor -> Gwydion Message-ID: Sender: news@cs.cmu.edu (Usenet News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 00:47:57 -0400 Lines: 9 Many of you have heard about our plans for a project named Igor, whose goal is to develop an innovative new software-development environment for the Dylan language. We've run into a name conflict with the name "Igor", so the project and the environment we produce will henceforth be called "Gwydion". If you're curious about the meaning of the new name, see the cmu.cs.common-lisp or comp.lang.dylan newsgroups for the whole story. -- Scott Fahlman Article 1049 of cmu.cs.common-lisp: Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu cmu.cs.common-lisp:1049 Newsgroups: cmu.cs.common-lisp Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!honeydew.srv.cs.cmu.edu!news From: sef@sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu Subject: Igor -> Gwydion Message-ID: Sender: news@cs.cmu.edu (Usenet News System) Nntp-Posting-Host: sef-pmax.slisp.cs.cmu.edu Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 00:42:23 -0400 Lines: 56 A few weeks ago I posted an announcement of the Igor project at Carnegie Mellon, whose goal is to produce an innovative new software-development environment based on the Dylan language (and, in the process, to make available a very high-quality implementation of Dylan). This project includes many of the same people who brought you CMU Common Lisp. Unfortunately, we have run into a name conflict on the name "Igor". A company called WaveMetrics in Oregon is marketing a graphing and data analysis package called "Igor" for the Mac. After some friendly (no lawyers) discussion with those folks, we determined that their system and ours are close enough in what they do that it might cause some real confusion for both of us to use the same name. So we have to find a new name. Anyone who has tried to name a system or project will appreciate how hard it is to find a good name that is not already taken, but I think we have now succeeded: Henceforth, if there are no more nasty surprises, our environment will be known as "Gwydion", and we will be "the Gwydion project". The name Gwydion seems very appropriate for our project: In Welsh mythology, Gwydion is the uncle (and by some accounts also the father) of Dylan, who is a sea god and the Spirit of Darkness, and of Llew Llaw, the Spirit of Light. Gwydion is a mighty wizard, able to change shapes at will, and a bard with wonderful ability to recite poetry and ancient lore. His most famous magical exploit was to turn a pile of fungus into twelve greyhounds, twelve stallions, and twelve golden shields -- temporarily -- which he swaps for wonderful new creatures called swine, just arrived from the underworld. This trickery starts a big war and gets Gwydion in trouble with his uncle, named Math, who is an even more powerful wizard. Later Gwydion makes many trips to the underworld to retrieve creatures for the benefit of humanity: the deer, the dog, and the lapwing. Gwydion is the druid of the gods, which presumably means he looks after their trees. He is hostile to the niggardly gods of the underworld who hoard Fertility, which they keep buried under the earth until he, as beneficent trickster, uses his warm sunrays to free it. He is credited with originating April Fool's Day when, on the first day of April, he conjured up magical armies to trick his sister Arianrhod. And so, as you see, Gwydion is an even better name for our project than Igor would have been. Thanks to David Pierce, one of my undergrad hackers and a student of Celtic lore, for coming up with this. -- Scott =========================================================================== Scott E. Fahlman Internet: sef+@cs.cmu.edu Senior Research Scientist Phone: 412 268-2575 School of Computer Science Fax: 412 681-5739 Carnegie Mellon University Latitude: 40:26:33 N 5000 Forbes Avenue Longitude: 79:56:48 W Pittsburgh, PA 15213 =========================================================================== The Gwydion Project at CMU is developing an innovative new software development environment based on the Dylan language (and, in the process, will make available a very high-quality implementation of Dylan). This project includes many of the same people responsible for CMU Common Lisp. (In Welsh mythology, Gwydion is the uncle of Dylan and nephew of Math.)