[Radiance-general] Renaming "rview"

[Roland Schregle]

Greg Ward wrote:

> It seems certain that we need to rename "rview," and from the responses 
> I received, also "gencat," "lam," "neat," and "calc."  Here are my 
> suggestions for these others, along with my reasoning:
> 
>     "gencat" -> "gencatenary"
> 
> This is a little-used, optional generator for catenaries.  I see nothing 
> against making the name longer and more explicit.  I don't think anyone 
> expected it to generate a feline, but I imagine quite a few users 
> wondered what the heck it did generate, as there's no man page for it.  

Actually, a feline generator could come in handy... (along with Rob's 
Pam Anderson generator). Consider it for the next release! :^)

/usr/bin/gencat was the only collision found by your script on my 
Mandrake 9.1 distrib.

>     "neat" -> "neaten"
> 
> I also thought to rename it to "tidy," but that seemed a too big change 
> for an obscure little utility.  If you've never checked this one out, 
> you might give it a look.  I thought it was a cute little program, which 
> is how I named it.

How about "kleen"? :^)

> OK, finally to the subject of this message, which is coming up with a 
> new name for an old friend.  Below are listed some numbered 
> alternatives.  I want you to write back with your favorite (pick just 
> one, please) and explain your reasoning.  Consider it a chance to 
> contribute to the next release even if you've never written a line of C 
> code.  Here are the candidates.
> 
> 1.    "rvu"
> 
> Possibly my favorite, because it's short and unique, and if you say the 
> letters, you get back the original.

I was just gonna suggest that myself.

> 3.    "rviewer"
> 
> This is better, because it stays close to the original meaning of the 
> command, which is "ray viewer," and also has the two extra letters added 
> at the end rather than the beginning, so you can remember the new 
> command name at the last minute, right as your fingers are leaving the 
> word and saying, "Hey -- you forgot something!"

There's always file name completion, Greg. At least when you're running 
a *real* OS. :^)

> 5.    "your_name_here"
> 
> Your own suggestion if you don't like any of the others.  (Not really 
> your personal moniker -- we aren't naming the command after you, sorry.)

(Damn...)

I'd consider "rpreview". Yeah, it's longer, but I imagine a lot of users 
use it specifically just to get an idea of their scene (although you can 
of course do your final renderings with it too).

> Well, those are my ideas.  They're all included in the new 
> "radcollisions.csh" attached to this message.  If you haven't run it on 
> your system yet, please do so and send me the output.  It would be a 
> real shame to rename a command to conflict with yet another Unix 
> program, so even if you ran the last one, please indulge me again.  (Do 
> it quickly, before "vim" takes over the world!)

I think we have a concesus on shoving this editor where the sun don't 
shine. :^)

--Roland

-- 
Roland Schregle
PhD candidate, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems
RADIANCE Photon Map page: www.ise.fhg.de/radiance/photon-map

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