William Skaggs wrote:

The results returned from Googling for "define: gimp" include these:

Sadomasochistic practice often features in the notion of the gimp, with a partnership between gimp and dominatrix (or dominant). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimp_(sadomasochism)

Imagine how a gimp must feel when he's converted to a "penquin"! I don't even want to think about the dragonfly thing:

"They are very popular at summer camps where you might have made one. They are often used to form animals, like dragonflies or penquins[...]"

What an insane society, exposing their kids to such dirty, dirty[1] things!

http://www.google.de/search?q=define:+gimp&defl=en

And Gimp are even sold in stores! For example, see the shocking display at
http://www.hancockfabrics.com/shopping/search/searchresultsmain.jsp?keyword=gimp (note the company's name, it has the evil C-word in it!!??!)

Yes, selective quoting is fun :)

SCNR, Michael :)

[1] if dropped

Well... I don't think I've even seen an IBM product with a name as bad as The GIMP. I think a name change would be a good idea- it might be a little damaging in the short term, yes - just imagine all the fun that the various Linux distros would have, for instance - but would probably lead to a brighter future.

You'd need a real initiative from the real Top Brass people to change the name, though, or it would never happen - until then, arguments about it are just so much hot air.

Fennec wrote:

You'd need a real initiative from the real Top Brass people to change the name, though, or it would never happen - until then, arguments about it are just so much hot air.

ACK.

BTW, the "The" isn't part of the name, although it has been used a lot in the past (including my sig, I've changed this now).

I'd be really interested to know about the arguments that were held about the name problem for the gimp as in yarn, does anyone have links to them?

Michael

On Mon, 15 May 2006, Fennec wrote:

Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 15:11:17 -0400 From: Fennec
To: GIMP Developer
Subject: Re: [Gimp-developer] Gimp connotations ?

Well... I don't think I've even seen an IBM product with a name as bad as The GIMP. I think a name change would be a good idea- it might be a

As you can see from this discussion non-English speakers aren't bothered by the name. More often a project picks a name without realising it means something rude in another language.

Distributions have already tackled the problem of confusing project names by showing a generic description such as "Image Editor" instead.

little damaging in the short term, yes - just imagine all the fun that the various Linux distros would have, for instance - but would probably lead to a brighter future.

Using the full title GNU Image Manipulation Program is cumbersome but an adequate workaround in the meantime.

You'd need a real initiative from the real Top Brass people to change the name, though, or it would never happen - until then, arguments about it are just so much hot air.

I wasn't arguing. I was stating the fact that the name causes problems since in English gimp is more often known as to mean person with a limp or interested in bondage than it is a type of knot (a meaning I only learned after looking it up in a dictionary after a similar discussion on this list_.

Sven has already made it very clear he doesn't want to change the name and would not even accept patches which made it easier to change the name. (Firstly I'd like to remove the over use of the word within the application lables but if I were allowed I would try to make it a configuration option.)

Certification (as this thread was originally about) would be best handled by a third party who already do other certification.