Change the R in RGBDS from Rednex to something else?
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The name "Rednex Game Boy Development System" came from Justin Lloyd/Otaku no Zoku's fork of ASMotor in 1999. It's been 25 years since then. RGBDS moved from the rednex organization to gbdev in 2020. After that move, RGBGFX and RGBFIX have been totally rewritten, as have major portions of RGBASM and RGBLINK. The current software, developers, and community doesn't (as far as I know) have a particular attachment to the "rednex" naming.
So: should we change it? Maybe to "Retro Game Boy Development System"? If someone asked "why is it called RGBDS" I wouldn't have an answer besides "historical reasons".
I'm not a fan of renaming things for the sake of renaming things. Is the current name problematic in any way? Am I missing something?
"Rednex" connotes two things to me: a country eurodance group and a stereotype for less-educated white American men
changing the first word is probably fine
(in fact, I would rather delete the rednex github organization)
I wouldn't call a "redneck" reference problematic because that sounds too moralizing/political, but I do think it's confusing. (What does it have to do with a Game Boy assembler? It's not a name that anyone currently involved with the project has attachment to/associations with.)
(If someone actually involved with it said "yeah, I'm from the US South, that's where the name's from", that would be fine, but AFAIK that's not the case.)
Also, double-check this info and make sure our History documentation is accurate: https://discord.com/channels/303217943234215948/790920525253836912/1071750521880318013
Voting for RGBDS Game Boy Development System :p
The recursive acronym approach also has precedence, GNU, YAML, WINE and cURL come to mind.
Oh, good idea. :3 I'll probably go with that one.
Or when Shawn Hargreaves, developer of the Allegro library (Atari Low Level Game Routines), left the Atari ST behind in favor of IBM PC + DJGPP in 1995. After this, it became Allegro Low Level Game Routines.
I disagree. The current name is not problematic in any way. A name is just a name, it doesn't really have to have a meaning, and this one is even behind one of the letters of the acronym. It's just cool and was attached to the project from the beginning.
My inclination would be the leave the name as is. Most people just call it by the acronym anyways, and the rednex part just references it's roots, even if it's been almost completely rewritten... Part of how we got here.
That being said, if I we do go ahead and rename it I vote for the recursive option.
I've just done a Google search of "rednex.github.io" and there are lots of results. This has made me think that a name change is probably a bad idea.
Thanks y'all for the concrete reasons not to make this change! Good point about old URLs.
I've just done a Google search of "rednex.github.io" and there are lots of results. This has made me think that a name change is probably a bad idea.
Every link I've found points to a site that already only exists to redirect from very old links to the new rgbds docs.
As such, I don't think that's an argument against a name change.
I think it's like Pan Docs. People digging far enough for it will find reasons to be angry, but I expect this kind of person to also understand the practical considerations making it difficult to change the name.
And, besides, nobody has actually gotten angry over the name yet, so let's keep this statu quo until someone actually speaks up. Then we will have someone who can evaluate options, rather than trying to guess what would be uncontroversial.