SchoolTool 1.0 released [LWN.net]

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.

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SchoolTool 1.0 released

Posted May 1, 2009 21:10 UTC (Fri) by amk (subscriber, #19) [Link] (2 responses)

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 (guest, #15413) [Link] (1 responses)

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...