LWN.net Logo

SchoolTool 1.0 released

SchoolTool 1.0 released

Posted May 1, 2009 21:01 UTC (Fri) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020)
In reply to: SchoolTool 1.0 released by pboddie
Parent article: SchoolTool 1.0 released

I quoted the dictionary because it was nearby. The connotation of the word "tool" in the name struck me before that.


(Log in to post comments)

SchoolTool 1.0 released

Posted May 1, 2009 21:10 UTC (Fri) by amk (subscriber, #19) [Link]

Sure, there's a slang meaning, but people also use the word 'tool' in its usual sense all the time. "Unix Power Tools". "Unix Backup Tool". Kernighan & Plauger's classic book "Software Tools" (not a rollicking satire of software development). SchoolTool seems an unobjectionable choice for a name.

SchoolTool 1.0 released

Posted May 2, 2009 2:24 UTC (Sat) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]

In the american scholastic context, tool is primararily a derogatory term for overachievers, bookworms, what have you. It suggests a certain social nonfunctionality to working hard. The word is sometimes knowingly self-applied or used as a verb.

Really, tool as insult is more common in many scholastic environments than tool in the sense of "power tools".

That said, I think the name doesn't matter that much. It's for teachers, not students.

SchoolTool 1.0 released

Posted May 10, 2009 18:48 UTC (Sun) by oak (guest, #2786) [Link]

> tool is primararily a derogatory term for overachievers, bookworms, what
have you. It suggests a certain social nonfunctionality to working hard.

Well, doesn't the name then fit the program well? Programs definitely
should be hard-working and on human scale computers are pretty
antisocial...

Copyright © 2012, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds