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<p>Yeah I think the old "functional programming is slow" memes died
off about when the rest of the industry went on its JavaScript
bender, so I am not really worried about the negative connotations
of turtles.</p>
<p>The positive connotations of turtles sounds very good to me.
Besides safety,</p>
<ul>
<li> the longevity of at least giant tortoises also speaks to
GHC's rare ability to stay at the vanguard of research while
still being wildly used.</li>
<li>Their ability to walk and swim speaks to the diverse backends
that can be attached to GHC (NCG, LLVM, GHCJS, Asterius,
Clash's, etc.).</li>
<li>Even the fable, from which the slowness myth comes from I
guess, goes well with "avoid success at all costs".</li>
</ul>
<p>Conversely I am not a fan of choosing a Cat. I like Cats fine in
real life, don't get be wrong, but Cats are so popular on the
internet that this would be the the unmarked animal choice, with
no clear connotations or memorability. I think that would be the
juvenile choice, per Ben's slippery slope.<br>
</p>
<p>Foxes are nice, but I think Firefox has that for life.</p>
<p>Octopuses are alright. GitHub's Octocat doesn't doesn't pose
nearly as much of a problem as Firefox for foxes. Still, while
Octopuses are smart, they are usually solitary and mischievous.
GHC is very much a long-term group effort, belying the solitary
connotation, and I certainly hope any compiler I use isn't
mischievous!<br>
</p>
<p>A turtle for a compiler is a bold choice that indicates our
values, confidence that the performance of compiled code is immune
to cheap derision, and humor.</p>
<p>John</p>
<p>P.S. The funny patterns on turtles' backs could be made of
lambdas?...</p>
<p>P.P.S. and yes, if it does compel us to fix rampant list
appending just so we're fast on all fronts, that would be nice too
:).</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/2/20 11:47 AM, Ben Gamari wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="mid:87bliorxi9.fsf@smart-cactus.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Richard Eisenberg <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rae@richarde.dev"><rae@richarde.dev></a> writes:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">I'm oddly drawn to the idea of a turtle -- except that turtles are
slow. But animals are cute. Maybe something involving a fox, given
that foxes can be clever? Octopuses are also known to be very clever,
but maybe GitHub has octopuses covered.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">In general I'm rather neutral on the logo question. There is a fine line
between "juvenile" (which may detract from the project's credibility in
the eyes of some) and "cute" (which I think is universally a Good
Thing); the current rather boring logo was a quick attempt to satisfy
the need for some logo while recognizing that I lack the artistic
ability to walk that line. I don't think it's a bad logo but it's quite
dull and far from being a *good* logo. I do hope someone steps up to do
better.
Logos aside, I do feel the need to correct the record here: you
clearly have not seen how quickly a turtle can move when offered banana
or shrimp. They can be quite quick when suitably incentivized!
Cheers,
- Ben
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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