September 27, 2012 at 18:50We play with code names
Programmers have a difficult job. To nurture your creative spirit, sometimes you need to be distracted. For example, we at JetBrains select code names for future product releases. Here are a couple of funny stories of their appearance.
For eleven years in the information technology market, our best example of an IntelliJ IDEA IDE has changed several goddess names: Stella, Vista, Pandora, Ariadna, Aurora, Pallada, Irida, Demetra, Selena, Diana, Maia, Nika, and most recently, Leda.
Code names are also reflected in product screensavers. Here, for example, Aurora. If we were to make a Russian-language product, we probably would have portrayed the cruiser Aurora, but it is international ... and Aurora, in addition to the goddess, also means "northern lights" in English. Here is such a calico!
Last year, in order to find a name with the letter F, which was also easy to pronounce, the developers had to shovel a bunch of geographical atlases, maps, and even Google Earth. When the team focused on the search, a strange letter arrived. In it, an Indian university promised to buy any number of TeamCity licenses if the next release is called Falna - by the name of the city in which the university is located. Apparently, they found out how we come up with code codes, and decided to advertise their city and themselves!
Suddenly an insight came: the letter came on April 1st - the day of the draw! Only the joker's identity is still shrouded in mystery.
Intelligence from God
For eleven years in the information technology market, our best example of an IntelliJ IDEA IDE has changed several goddess names: Stella, Vista, Pandora, Ariadna, Aurora, Pallada, Irida, Demetra, Selena, Diana, Maia, Nika, and most recently, Leda. Code names are also reflected in product screensavers. Here, for example, Aurora. If we were to make a Russian-language product, we probably would have portrayed the cruiser Aurora, but it is international ... and Aurora, in addition to the goddess, also means "northern lights" in English. Here is such a calico!
Nothing human is alien to us
From the very beginning, the name of our YouTrack bug tracker has asked for human traits of character, quality and emotion. For a long time, the alpha version was called Charisma, until we found out that this name is not commercially available. When the bug tracker finally went on sale under the name YouTrack, the following codes appeared, alphabetically: Daring (“courage”), Energy (“energy”) and Fascination (“hobby”). What will the next version be called - Generosity (“generosity”), Grotesque (“absurdity”), or maybe Grandeur (“greatness”)? Find out soon!What about an excursion into the history of art?
The dotTrace profiler .NET team has a lot of fans of classical art. Therefore, the releases are named after Italian architects and sculptors, also in alphabetical order: Arabella, Bernini, Canova and Donatello. The screen saver design for all minor versions of dotTrace was based on the work of these masters. Who would have thought, really?Legendary islands
When the Kotlin project began to take shape, we thought that the name of an island would be suitable for it. Well, Java, Java and all that. And we decided what to go far: in St. Petersburg, where IntelliJ Labs is located, there are at least 33 islands with unique names. Due to the ease of pronunciation, our choice fell on Kotlin, an island in the Baltic Sea, 32 km west of St. Petersburg, on which the fortified city of Kronstadt is located. Voila!Kingdom of the Forest
The RubyMine team just recently started using code names and decided to pay tribute to Ruby's Japanese origin. The latest version 4.5 is called Nire, which means "elm" in Japanese. Before that was Tōhi - “spruce”. Let others practice the alphabet, these guys went a new way: the number of letters that they use in the name matches the version number! Let's see how enough they are ...There is always a place for geography
TeamCity version names traditionally featured Indian cities: Agra, Benares, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Eluru and Faradi. At first glance, the selection of alphabetical names is simple, right? In fact, there are no problems with the first letter, but over some developers were forced to smash their heads.Last year, in order to find a name with the letter F, which was also easy to pronounce, the developers had to shovel a bunch of geographical atlases, maps, and even Google Earth. When the team focused on the search, a strange letter arrived. In it, an Indian university promised to buy any number of TeamCity licenses if the next release is called Falna - by the name of the city in which the university is located. Apparently, they found out how we come up with code codes, and decided to advertise their city and themselves!
Suddenly an insight came: the letter came on April 1st - the day of the draw! Only the joker's identity is still shrouded in mystery.