What is on Your Mind?

We should put an end to saying "orphan", "kill child", "zombie".

Anyone,

We should change the awful metaphors used in the language of managing Unix processes. I believe that this still humbly local initiative hides a great importance of how the world of Unix looks and feels to every user.


Example:
No more "kill". Use stop, remove or whatever else. It doesn't matter if that's already taken, we will always have vast language reserves.

If a process can be called a child/parrent then it should not be "killed" and "reaped", but collected. I prefer the playground to the graveyard, don't know about you.

Think about the already present "forest" metaphor. We could have roots an branches again. Or to seas, flows and rivers. Or flocks and packs. Or kings, counts, servants and agents. If we could "dam", "stem", "draw", why should we kill?

Since this is standard, it can change. One shouldn't think about how great a challenge it, one should just start walking against it.


You might feel this is irrelevant to what is actually done with a computer system and what it's for. But it's a fact that metaphors are used in illustrations of knowledge as well as in making the world we live and work in ours. If we care for what we wear and what you have in the house, why shouldn't you care of the words and ideas with which you express what you are doing?


I start today by creating links/aliases for the commands I don't like to hear on each of the 50 or so real and virtual machines I set foot on.

Kill, child, orphan, zombie and the likes are there since the seventies and are unlikely to disappear in the Unix context. They are actually pretty good metaphors while perhaps not "politically correct". Your proposal reminds me how many Unix people were upset when directories started to be referred as folders. Gratuitous changes are usually not welcome.

The first example is interesting as kill, both as a system call and a command, is a partly a misnomer. Kill is sending a signal to a process that effectively kill that process or not depending on settings. Its most frequent use is to kill so the name still seems adequate to me.
"stop" won't do as it is an existing special case which imply the process is resumable. "remove" might also be confusing as it is so commonly associated with unlinking a file.

You might want to post your aliases and start a poll about them ...

How about:

Code:

euthanize -9

Euthanasia might also be a controversial/non politically correct topic ...

What about:

Code:

hasta_la_vista_baby -9 pid

A long time ago, I worked with a programmer who used profanity for all his cobol variable names.

Isn't using cobol already a profanity in the first place ?

I really don't understand or get the point in seeing what goodness its going to bring on whatever the list is going to change.

Are we trying to think/simulate something like, object modeling using real world elements with respect to a class design, to that of normal/casual/accepted words or order/request usage and the naming of processes/tools/utilities in unix. This when extended you might be even considering to restrict filename creation in unix to restricted filenames and not having profanity or criticism in the filenames created, did you?

Its a system, ask it to do it, it will do it, which means you got to tell that how to do it. ( Not the AI programs/softwares where the base intelligence and intelligence to improve is also instructed )