I know every developer will hate me, but I could not resist the urge to suggest that the redesign of ROOT in version 7, which will break backward compatibility and is more or less rewritten from scratch, is a unique opportunity to change (slightly?) the software name to something like “SOOT” or “TOOR” or any other thing.
There are several reasons that would support such change:
[ul]
[li] Maybe we have forgotten after many years of using it, but the first time a Linux admin gets in touch with ROOT, he thinks… Really? No other name was available? I found also a similar remark in insectnation.org/articles/proble … -root.html Fortunately, most of his concerns have been solved to the day, for which everybody is really thankful. The name change would do the rest.[/li]
[li] Googling things related with “ROOT” is always complicated, it mixes with “root”, and so on.[/li]
[li] To give a clear hint to physicists: hey, this is something completely new. Still from CERN, but a new language. This not PAW, and this also not ROOT. C++11/14 is a new language, ROOT7 also. A new image.[/li]
[li] To explicitly break backward compatibility. Avoids that someone tries to reuse his CINT codes calling root -l … and to avoid mixing (without noticing) ROOT versions installed in parallel. Also for recoding, this avoids lazy copy-paste or skipping. And this forces to disentangle old design dependencies of classes that should be independent. In other words, it would force rethought redesign and better encapsulation.[/li]
[li] To easen the bridge between old and new codes, as both versions could be run easily in parallel without the need of calling “source /opt/root7/bin/thisroot.sh” … each time you want to change to the new version. Also for the users, to get used to it without needing to “upgrade” the old one.[/li]
[li] It would be a good moment for “restarting” the heavy git repository (>500Mb).[/li]
[li] To get rid of the heavy (and most of the time correct) criticism associated with the ROOT history (quora.com/Why-does-CERN-use-ROOT), now that a lot of the problems have been or will be adressed.[/li]
[li] When looking for tutorials, it will be easier to distinguish if there is a new website and name, and you avoid using old code with the new software by mistake. [/li][/ul]
In any case, I appreciate all your efforts and would be eager to know your opinions or anger.