Re: UrShapes

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden speakeasy org>]

John Palmieri wrote:

> Andre Kloss wrote:
>
> > Hi, John, hi Cyrille, hi everyone!
> >
> > Cyrille: The "Ur" in UrShape is a) an arch german word for ox ;) or
> > (and that's what we mean) b) german prefix meaning "arch" as in
> > "archetype". Well, John doesn't seem to be german, but he came up with
> > it.
> > John: How did you come up with it? ;)
> Actually I didn't come up with it, I think it was JKL.  I was wondering
> what Ur was for but since it successfully distinguished our offerings
> (everybody who cares knows it as UrShapes)  it was a good name.
>
> I always thought it was some primitive command.  You know, "I Tarzan,
> you Jane and you are Shape".

Friends,

"Success has a thousand fathers; failure is an orphan."  I hope we have the
problem one day that everyone wants to know why they're called UrShapes!

For now, you can blame the name on me.  On 17 June 2001, I wrote:

> John describes what I'll call the "UrShape" (as in "prototypical shape")
The definition I was referring to can be found as # 3 at
    http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=ur-

My thinking was that the UrShape would be the shape from which other shapes
would be built.  If successful, they would supplant all other shapes, thus
becoming the ur-shape in a true sense.  If unsuccessful, well, who would
care?

But there was a pun, too.  A very long time ago, in the days of -- remember
them? -- *analog* photography, there was a photo lab in New York called
UR Darkroom, that would print your pictures per you instructions (crop
them, color adjust, etc.).  Their ad said (in fine print at the bottom,
where all puns belong) that "UR" should be pronounced "your" as in "your
darkroom".  I thought "your shape" wasn't such a bad name for something
that does what you want and can be used to make other things that do what
you really want.

Note however that the correct pronounciation of "ur-" in English is more
similiar to "oar" than "your"; there's no "yuh" sound at the front.  How to
say UrShape?  That'll be fun to argue about one day, if anyone cares.

I'm with Cyrille, though.  I think John's interpretation is the best.  It's
easily the funniest.  I imagine him with the gdb running, examining the
data structure, trying to get the beast to behave, reminding the program,
"You are shape"!  8->

Hey!  I'm gonna be in Copenhagen and parts of Sweden for the rest of the
month, on and off.  Consequently I'll be quieter and more useless than
ever.  Anyone I should look up?  I'm bringing beer money.

Cheers,

--jkl

P.S. I would like to know what "grumpf" means, too.  Is it "GRaphical
Utilities for the Modeling of Parallel Functions", or is that a useless use
of google?