Change references to 'spermy' to 'twiddle wakka'

[r00k]

The rubygems guides refer to "~>" as 'twiddle wakka', but the code had some old references to a 'spermy operator'. This commit makes the two consistent.

[postmodern]

Where did the term "spermy operator" or "twiddle wakka" originate from? RubyGems appears to be the first to use either term.

Personally, I've always read ~> as "approximately greater than".

[zenspider]

'spermy' is the newer term. We prefer it.

[qrush]

Is there a reason "we prefer it"? Does anyone seriously discuss with their coworkers "use the spermy operator in your Gemfile" ? I vote for the change that doesn't sound childish.

[qrush]

I'd also like to note this matches the guides.

http://guides.rubygems.org/patterns/#declaring-dependencies

[postmodern]

Who is this "we"? Where did "spermy operator" originated from? Or is this a personal preference?

[evanphx]

I'd prefer an entirely different name, personal. I'm not a fan of 'spermy' nor 'twiddle wakka'.

[practicingruby]

@zenspider, I agree with @evanphx. I don't particularly like the very old name for this (pessimistic version operator). Maybe call it approximate version?

Spermy is a cute Easter egg, but a name that describes how something look rather than what it does is just bad design, IMO.

[postmodern]

@sandal, @evanphx, see #124

[evanphx]

After some nerd discussion, I'd like to throw "semantic arrow" into the mix. Used in a sentence: "We require rails semantic version 1.2.3"

[practicingruby]

@evanphx, In theory I think that works well but in practice it's probably too loaded of a term, implying things about the versions that aren't necessarily true. Could be confusing terminology when used with libraries that don't use semantic versioning. The word semantic on its own doesn't mean much in this context, so I'd always be thinking of semver.

[postmodern]

@evanphx I like that term. Although, Gem::Version has to match all Version Schemas, beyond Semantic Versioning.

[practicingruby]

perhaps "compatible_version" is an option. "We require rails compatible version 1.2.3"

[drbrain]

I have seen "pessimistic" used as well.

[luislavena]

While pessimistic might sound negative to some, it is pretty much what it is: you're being pessimistic about the version of the library you're going to depend on, just to stay safe.

spermy is too heavy with other meanings and doesn't communicate the function. twiddle wakka sounds like a joke.

[trans]

What is =~ called ?

[erikh]

Actually, trans might be onto something here; patterns are really what we're looking at here, and that might be a good basis for a rename, "regular version" or "version match operator" would satisfy my inner semantic nerd.

Still, I can't help but declare the bikeshed should be yellow to keep in line with the tone of the discussion. There are more important things to spend time on.

[agrimm]

Anything but spermy operator. Please.

[parndt]

Spermy is a ridiculous term. Seriously?!

[lazyatom]

Agreed, anything but "spermy".

[practicingruby]

I am closing this request because I've been given permission to merge #124 if it does not cause any problems. I just have not had time to look into it yet, but it will happen eventually. No one else with commit access seems to care much about this, but it'll get taken care of eventually. /c @lazyatom