Wrangler

Thursday 5 August 2004

Over a year ago, I mentioned the idea of naming classes without 'Manager'. I said at the time that I liked the idea of using 'Wrangler' instead. Well, I finally went ahead and did it: CRetryWrangler was born. It has a nice alliterative ring to it. I figured I'd get a little grief from my co-developers about the whimsical name.

One of them asked me, "What's a wrangler?", and I told him it was a kind of cowboy who takes care of horses or something. He comes back later and informs me that is its second definition, but the first is:

An angry disputant; one who disputes with heat or peevishness.

Sure enough. Oh well. The name sticks. Maybe it's even more appropriate.

tagged: coding» 7 reactions

Comments

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Davy 7:30 AM on 5 Aug 2004

The first thing that came to my mind was .... JEEP

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Simon Proctor 8:06 AM on 5 Aug 2004

This is why in Pratchetts books you have the Senior Wrangler, who, as there was some dispute over whethr this should be a fine disputant or a cowboy, is a master of logical disputation... who looks like a horse.

(I can't place the exact quote unfortunately)

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tom oneil 12:36 PM on 5 Aug 2004

This coming from the guy who wanted to name an application "Data Moose".

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steve 2:20 AM on 6 Aug 2004

The Pratchett usage is taken from the quaint habit of naming the chap who graduates in the Cambridge University Mathematical Tripos with the highest marks as “Senior Wrangler” — presumably deriving from the olden days when command of logical argument was indeed the distinguishing characteristic, and before the word acquired its negative connotations in this context.

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Doug L. 12:57 AM on 10 Aug 2004

I find it odd that all of those dictionaries list the "disputant" meaning as "first" definition. I don't think I've ever heard that word used in that sense. Maybe I watched too many Westerns when I was young. My favorite appearances of the word are in movie credits, where you'll sometimes see someone listed as the "Snail Wrangler" or some such.

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Garth T Kidd 1:37 AM on 12 Aug 2004

I once wanted "Web Server Wrangler" on my business card. For some reason, EDS wouldn't let me.

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Ned Batchelder 8:45 AM on 11 Mar 2009

Pete Lyons wrote a post a while back that listed many more possibilities.

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