Subject: [LON-CAPA-dev] helper terminology

From: Felicia Berryman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 11:33:23 -0500

Hello,

I don't want to debate the term helper used in LON-CAPA.  I just found 
it interesting that gnucash (which I've been using at home quite 
frequently lately) uses the term "Druid" intead of "Wizard"  :)

I read this list digested so don't worry about replying.

Felicia
-- 
Felicia Berryman
LON-CAPA Support Coordinator
Michigan State University
Phone:  (517)432-9866
Technical Support Available at:
    http://www.loncapa.msu.edu - MSU Users
    http://www.help.lon-capa.org - General

---

From: Jeremy Bowers <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:06:08 -0500

> I read this list digested so don't worry about replying.

I kinda ended up choosing the final term after feedback from others. I 
started with "wizard" (I think if you poke around in the CVS archive, 
you can still find a "lonwizard.pm" in there, though it's deleted), but 
there were trademark concerns, and also concerns over potential offense. 
(Maybe that was just me, but I think some others expressed it as at 
least a possibility.)

"Druid" fixes the copyright concern, but has the same basic 
potentially-offensive issues as Wizard (same basic groups being 
offended), so I dropped that whole semantic area. The other problem I 
saw is that while people may know what a "Wizard" is, they don't 
necessarily know what a "Druid" or "Sorcerer" or (heh heh) "Logomancer" 
is. ("Druid" in particular really bothers me; I don't think my wife 
would see it as a synonym for "Wizard", and www.m-w.com doesn't either. 
IMHO they should have gone with something a bit less cutesy and more 
descriptive too.)

"Helper" is kind of dull, but is at least descriptive and suitably neutral.

http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/EpisodeSounds/2ACV02/06.mp3