[Lazarus] Reconstructing Lazarus Website 2: the content

[Martin]

On 04/02/2010 07:29, Paul van Helden wrote:
> On 2010/02/04 07:56 AM, Martin wrote:
>>> A related topic that's been bothering me: can we please discuss a 
>>> name change for Lazarus as well? It's not like a name change will 
>>> hurt the project at this stage, methinks...
>>>
>>  -1
>>
>> I don't see why changing the name. Any Name except for "Pascal 
>> RAD-IDE" needs branding => users have to learn to associate it with a 
>> pascal RAD-IDE.
> Well, perhaps there are other people that are having the same 
> experience as myself: When people ask me what I use for developing my 
> software the answer is usually "Free Pascal & Lazarus". The response 
> is /aways/ a puzzled look or a pause on the other end of the phone 
> line, but my concern is that it doesn't even sound cool. A 
> puzzled+mildly_impressed look would be so much better than a 
> puzzled+what_is_this_guy_smoking? look. There are so many cool 
> sounding programming languages out there, like "Python" or "Ruby on 
> Rails" (check their website for a simple and to-the-point 

Well "Free Pascal" is the name of the compiler. The only Reason you have 
to mention it separately is because people do not know what Lazarus is. 
But a new name does not change that, peolpe still would not know.

The fact that people (even those not using it) know about Delphi comes 
from a lot of advertisement (branding) that was done for the name.
Choose any name or keep "Lazarus". If you spent enough time and effort 
to make it known to the world, then it will have the same effect. If you 
don't have the time or don't make the effort, then no name will ever 
mean anyting to anyone, but the selected few who actually use it.

> The symbology of some project "raised from the dead" will be lost on 
> most people, I think, and perhaps that is a good thing.
You are right the original reason why tthe name was hoosen doesn't 
matter that much (it is still a nice little anecdote for insiders). But 
then why was Delphi called Delphi? For all I know this is ancient greek, 
but nothing to do with computers? And since Delphi is an ancient name, 
by choosing the ancient name "Lazarus" ourself, we actually have one 
more thing in common with Dalphi....

> Why this heavy emphasis on exterior appearances (ie. being "cool")? 
> all the uber geeks might ask. It is important because most decision 
> makers, clients and users are not geeks. These people need to feel 
> good about the money they are spending. I believe a large part of 
> Oracle's success can be attributed to the really cool name. (What an 
> amazingly cool name for such a cr at p database, and don't tell me 
> "Delphi" wasn't inspired by "Oracle"). Just look around you and see 
> all the billboards with pretty people on them. This is the society we 
> live in, like it or not. I don't, but if we want to be 
> anti-establishment, why not just change the name to something really 
> horrible and spell it with all small caps...... like git. (ouch)

What is so cool about the name "oracle"? except that is is badly chosen 
for a database: A database should produce data in a predictable ways. An 
oracle isn't predictable at all.

The fact that Delphi and Oracle sound cool today only comes from the 
fact that every computer magazine praises them. If They would write the 
same amount of cool stuff about Lazarus, then the name would be equably 
cool.

In other words it is not/never the name that is cool. it is always the 
product and it's marketing that make the whole thing cool. We lack the 
marketing and that is the problem.

Martin