[r6rs-discuss] use of "bytes"

From: David T. Pierson <dtp>
Date: Tue Nov 21 00:48:29 2006

On Mon, Nov 20, 2006 at 02:29:23PM -0500, William D Clinger wrote:
> [2] Made-up words are better than using a familiar
> word with our new made-up meaning.

This leaves out at least one other category of words to choose from:
existing words that that have an existing applicable meaning.

I think "blob" fits the bill here. In numerous database systems and in
SRFI 74 (thanks Michael Sperber for pointing this out), "blob" means
"amorphous (uninterpreted) binary data".

(I'm probably taking the suggestion of "bob" too seriously, but just in
case: I think dropping the "l" because the type won't be restricted to
large objects is taking the backronym too literally. Blobs can be used
for data of any size. The merit of the name is not that it conveniently
maps to "binary large object", but that "blob" in English means
"amorphous mass".)

David
Received on Tue Nov 21 2006 - 00:49:45 UTC