21 ms·

Unicorn

38 points by monsur 13y ago

wedtm 13y ago
I hate to add another nail to the name coffin, but I instantly thought this was regarding the ruby unicorn web server. I continued to think this until I came back to the comments to verify.
monsur 13y ago
Naming aside, I think there is some value in a fluent, cross-language methodology for making HTTP requests. While each library adheres to the conventions of its specific language, the overall pattern for making requests looks the same across languages. If you are someone working with APIs in different languages, there is value in having this consistency.
- rhizome 13y ago
  I don't think anybody would say that that consistency would be useless. Now, about the name...
ahknight 13y ago
That web design challenges manhood. And yet another confusing name. Yay.
daxelrod 13y ago
All right, I'm confused. I thought this was a new site for http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ , the Rack HTTP server. This was further reinforced by the use of the angry unicorn logo which GitHub used in their article on the Unicorn Rack HTTP server [1]. If I'm reading this right, though, this is an HTTP client library. The docs[2] say > If you are wondering why we aren't using the > Unicorn namespace for ruby it is because it's > already taken by the awesome Eric Wong's mostly > pure-Ruby HTTP backend This looks like a case of two different pieces of software, both of which speak HTTP, and both named Unicorn. [1]https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn [2]http://getunicorn.io/?language=Ruby http://getunicorn.io/?language=Ruby
middayc 13y ago
I think I'll never be able to switch to "libs have designed websites w/ logos and marketing messages" crowd. Probably getting old. This one with unreadable pink code font and blinking was specifically hard to look at. Consider this as friendly feedback please.
tptacek 13y ago
Extremely confusing name, given that Unicorn happens to be the name of both an extremely popular Ruby web server and its extremely popular Python port.
- nijiko 13y ago
  My little cousin decided it and I didn't have the heart to break his...
  - cheald 13y ago
    I sympathize, but at least use a variant on it. Picking that name and logo for an HTTP request library with Ruby and Python bindings is extremely bad form given that there's an existing HTTP server project that uses that name and is associated with that logo.
    - nijiko 13y ago
      Yes, I think I will be giving him some bad news today unfortunately.
  - eurleif 13y ago
    How about changing it to "Unicrest", as a play on unicorn/request?
  - biot 13y ago
    So rather than taking the opportunity to provide a lesson on project naming, you've let him think that it's a perfectly valid name. Now an entire development community is about to shoot down the project because you wanted to play the nice guy. How cruel!
pak 13y ago
Could they have possibly picked a more confusing name? 1. Unicorn for Ruby: http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ 2. Green Unicorn for Python: http://gunicorn.org/ http://gunicorn.org/ The fact that this is an HTTP request library, as opposed to a server, is what pushes this into serious troll territory. The only saving grace here is that Java programmers searching for this library might come upon one of the other two and realize what they are missing. Edit: A Ruby and a Python library, named unicorn-rest and unicorn respectively, are built into this project. This is madness.
- zampano 13y ago
  I clicked and just assumed it was the Ruby server, I've even seen that logo used in conjunction with Unicorn before. Did they just not google the name at all before diving in?
  - IanChiles 13y ago
    I'm pretty certain that that's the error message Github gives when something goes wrong with Unicorn (The Ruby one, that is)...
- psychometry 13y ago
  As pointed out by another commenter, they also ripped off the unicorn image seen on Github error pages, which further confuses the matter because Github obviously used that unicorn since they run the Unicorn web server, not whatever this HTTP library is. They would have been better off naming it something awful like "Hospice" or something.
  - smmnyc 13y ago
    apparently they got permission for use in open-source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597431
    - mnicole 13y ago
kaolinite 13y ago
Hm, that's the Github unicorn. I wonder if they have permission. http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksc5rubkMt1qz5pz6o1_500.png http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksc5rubkMt1qz5pz6o1_500.pn...
- nijiko 13y ago
  We do! It's owned by Daniel Shaw, who I got permission from to use in an open-source project.
  - kaolinite 13y ago
    Ah good, nice of him and good of you to obtain it :-)
danielmagnusson 13y ago
Looks really good, only need a name change..
existentialmutt 13y ago
This strikes me as intentionally misleading. They're using the github angry unicorn pic. GH is a noted proponent of Unicorn the ruby app server. https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn
- anonfunction 13y ago
  It's actually Daniel Shaw's logo and he has given us (and GitHub I presume) permission to use it. Sorry for the confusion, we really dropped the ball.
  - adrianpike 13y ago
    It is? https://twitter.com/dshaw/status/326795177584914432 https://twitter.com/dshaw/status/326795177584914432
JimmaDaRustla 13y ago
Nice to see a multi-language HTTP library, but I won't be stepping away from python-requests.org anytime soon.
- pudquick 13y ago
  100% agree on this one. Probably the only thing that immediately appealed to me for this project's python version was the integrated asynchronous requests capability. With version v0.13.0+ of python-requests, async functionality was split out by the maintainer to https://github.com/kennethreitz/grequests https://github.com/kennethreitz/grequests (and it's a light wrapper over requests + gevent).
- kenneth_reitz 13y ago
  <3
calinet6 13y ago
Just throwing in my vote for changing your name. My first thought was "You're kidding, right?"
dljsjr 13y ago
I'm going to operate completely under the assumption that the library authors didn't choose the Unicorn name with intentional malice, and that their motivations were entirely benevolent. It looks like a nice enough library, congrats on all of your hard work. That said, this name is going to foster a lot of ill will in the community, for all of the reasons already mentioned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597455 Additionally, as has been mentioned, the GitHub Angry Unicorn, whether permission was given or not, is most likely related to the fact that GitHub uses the Unicorn Rack server and are proponents of the software. In addition, the Ruby port of this library presents itself as "unicorn-rest", which could very easily be interpreted as either disingenuous or as a form of "coat-tail riding" off the name/notoriety of the existing Unicorn.
- jrabone 13y ago
  Ill will with the Ruby community, maybe, but fuck 'em. As long as it's unique in the Maven namespace, I don't care and neither should they/you.
anonfunction 13y ago
Everyone, we are listening! We are throwing around new names but they all suck. Any ideas?
- willismichael 13y ago
  Centaur, Minotaur, Pegasus, Satyr, Gryphon...
  - willismichael 13y ago
    If you want to go with Gryphon, here's a nice piece of open-source artwork: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$monsters$transparent$gryphon.png http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$mo...
    - nijiko 13y ago
      Wow, are you sure this is open-source? We are going over names and this one seems the fastest to replace unicorn with.
      - willismichael 13y ago
        Yeah, it's from Battle for Wesnoth (www.wesnoth.org), all of their core artwork is GPL2 licensed. If I remember right, there is some talk in their forums encouraging other open source games to use their artwork. If you are interested you ought to look around their community for the right person to ask permission. EDIT: Found a related forum discussion: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34892&p=505075 http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34892&...
        anonfunction 13y ago
        Thanks so much! We ended up going with Unirest, which we think is a great fit for the project. I just wanted to say I appreciate your help.
alpb 13y ago
This one should get a CocoaPods package ASAP.
coolsunglasses 13y ago
The text isn't very readable.
- andyfleming 13y ago
  It looks like part of the line "<url>http://maven.mashape.com/releases</url> http://maven.mashape.com/releases</url> is being made into a lighter pink because of the "//" being marked as a single-line comment by the syntax highlighter.
sinzone 13y ago
Some suggestions on the new name? - uniape - mashcorn - cornmash - unimashape - Restape - RestMash
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jagthedrummer 13y ago
Definitely needs a name change. This was an incredibly poor choice and makes me question whether I could ever feel comfortable using the software of an entire organization that is capable of making such a poor choice. Especially since they admit that they knew it would be confusing.
gfalcao 13y ago
This is hilarious
mythz 13y ago
I personally like my HTTP Util thin DRY extensions over .NET WebRequest better - more readable and concise and you retain access to the underlying HttpWebRequest so you don't lose any flexibility: https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack/wiki/Http-Utils https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack/wiki/Http-Utils
dschep 13y ago
Aside from the name crazyness this seems like a very thin layer on top of existing libraries to create a shared API across languages. Being mainly a Python dev, I see little reason to use it instead of Requests. It has a similar API for the basic verbs but nothing else. A quick glance at the code indicates to me that it doesn't have alot of the other features requests has (eg: simpler auth, cookies. builtin connection pooling). And worse it will explode on large a large response[1] [1] https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-python/blob/master/unicorn/__init__.py#L70 https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-python/blob/master/unicor...
jrabone 13y ago
Christ, the responses on here are absolutely what you'd expect from anyone remotely connected with the Ruby "community" - or at least a bunch of people who don't have sufficient experience with Java to comment on whether a fluent API is an improvement on the Apache HttpClient API, or HttpURLConnection (God help us, despite what Android devs think). When you've finished pissing on the colour scheme, or questioning whether the logo is a "rip off" (clue: used by permission), perhaps you can all go back to upgrading Rails, or stacking your gems in reverse version-number order, or whatever it is you do. Also - Java. It's the FIFTH word on the page reading Western-style. How the hell can you miss it? Too eager to get to the comments tab?
- johns 13y ago
  It's Java, PHP, Python, Ruby AND Objective-C. I think the naming criticisms are fair.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - jrabone 13y ago
    Can't hear anyone else over the sound of the Ruby people...
mrinterweb 13y ago
The name alone of this project is very frustrating. As pointed out, there is ruby application server named Unicorn that is quite popular. The ruby application server has the exact same logo except this project chose to flip the logo. This is intentionally confusing. I might be able to appreciate this library if they chose a different name and image, but I can't support a project that is intentionally leading to confusion. It is so bad that it seems like this project is trying to be an imposter of an original project. Is there no shame in open source?
skytalon 13y ago
A name suggestion: slighttp (from Simple LIGHTweight HTTP) (Just 205 results on google)
jack-r-abbit 13y ago
Of the supported languages, I only know PHP so I can't comment on the others. (and I don't really care what name/logo it uses) It looks like pretty clean work. However, this task has never really been a problem for me in PHP so I'm not likely to use it. But kudos to the author for trying to help out fellow programmers. And good luck.
ismaelc 13y ago
Hi guys, this is Chris from Mashape. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. We acknowledge the naming hoopla and are working hard to resolve it. But in behalf of Mashape I'd like to assure everyone that the library was created with the purpose of helping developers with cross platform HTTP requests. As such, we would like to invite everyone on 2 things: 1) Suggest a new name/branding for Unicorn, and 2) Contribute/suggest/fix the library as you see fit :) You can write to me directly too! chris@mashape.com . Looking forward to your comments!
sinzone 13y ago
We hear you! We're updating everything right now.

38 points by monsur 13y ago

wedtm 13y ago

I hate to add another nail to the name coffin, but I instantly thought this was regarding the ruby unicorn web server. I continued to think this until I came back to the comments to verify.

monsur 13y ago

Naming aside, I think there is some value in a fluent, cross-language methodology for making HTTP requests. While each library adheres to the conventions of its specific language, the overall pattern for making requests looks the same across languages. If you are someone working with APIs in different languages, there is value in having this consistency.

rhizome 13y ago
I don't think anybody would say that that consistency would be useless. Now, about the name...

ahknight 13y ago

That web design challenges manhood. And yet another confusing name. Yay.

daxelrod 13y ago

All right, I'm confused. I thought this was a new site for http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ , the Rack HTTP server. This was further reinforced by the use of the angry unicorn logo which GitHub used in their article on the Unicorn Rack HTTP server [1]. If I'm reading this right, though, this is an HTTP client library. The docs[2] say > If you are wondering why we aren't using the > Unicorn namespace for ruby it is because it's > already taken by the awesome Eric Wong's mostly > pure-Ruby HTTP backend This looks like a case of two different pieces of software, both of which speak HTTP, and both named Unicorn. [1]https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn [2]http://getunicorn.io/?language=Ruby http://getunicorn.io/?language=Ruby

middayc 13y ago

I think I'll never be able to switch to "libs have designed websites w/ logos and marketing messages" crowd. Probably getting old. This one with unreadable pink code font and blinking was specifically hard to look at. Consider this as friendly feedback please.

tptacek 13y ago

Extremely confusing name, given that Unicorn happens to be the name of both an extremely popular Ruby web server and its extremely popular Python port.

nijiko 13y ago
My little cousin decided it and I didn't have the heart to break his...
- cheald 13y ago
  I sympathize, but at least use a variant on it. Picking that name and logo for an HTTP request library with Ruby and Python bindings is extremely bad form given that there's an existing HTTP server project that uses that name and is associated with that logo.
  - nijiko 13y ago
    Yes, I think I will be giving him some bad news today unfortunately.
- eurleif 13y ago
  How about changing it to "Unicrest", as a play on unicorn/request?
- biot 13y ago
  So rather than taking the opportunity to provide a lesson on project naming, you've let him think that it's a perfectly valid name. Now an entire development community is about to shoot down the project because you wanted to play the nice guy. How cruel!

pak 13y ago

Could they have possibly picked a more confusing name? 1. Unicorn for Ruby: http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ http://unicorn.bogomips.org/ 2. Green Unicorn for Python: http://gunicorn.org/ http://gunicorn.org/ The fact that this is an HTTP request library, as opposed to a server, is what pushes this into serious troll territory. The only saving grace here is that Java programmers searching for this library might come upon one of the other two and realize what they are missing. Edit: A Ruby and a Python library, named unicorn-rest and unicorn respectively, are built into this project. This is madness.

zampano 13y ago
I clicked and just assumed it was the Ruby server, I've even seen that logo used in conjunction with Unicorn before. Did they just not google the name at all before diving in?
- IanChiles 13y ago
  I'm pretty certain that that's the error message Github gives when something goes wrong with Unicorn (The Ruby one, that is)...
psychometry 13y ago
As pointed out by another commenter, they also ripped off the unicorn image seen on Github error pages, which further confuses the matter because Github obviously used that unicorn since they run the Unicorn web server, not whatever this HTTP library is. They would have been better off naming it something awful like "Hospice" or something.
- smmnyc 13y ago
  apparently they got permission for use in open-source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597431
  - mnicole 13y ago

kaolinite 13y ago

Hm, that's the Github unicorn. I wonder if they have permission. http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksc5rubkMt1qz5pz6o1_500.png http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksc5rubkMt1qz5pz6o1_500.pn...

nijiko 13y ago
We do! It's owned by Daniel Shaw, who I got permission from to use in an open-source project.
- kaolinite 13y ago
  Ah good, nice of him and good of you to obtain it :-)

danielmagnusson 13y ago

Looks really good, only need a name change..

existentialmutt 13y ago

This strikes me as intentionally misleading. They're using the github angry unicorn pic. GH is a noted proponent of Unicorn the ruby app server. https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn https://github.com/blog/517-unicorn

anonfunction 13y ago
It's actually Daniel Shaw's logo and he has given us (and GitHub I presume) permission to use it. Sorry for the confusion, we really dropped the ball.
- adrianpike 13y ago
  It is? https://twitter.com/dshaw/status/326795177584914432 https://twitter.com/dshaw/status/326795177584914432

JimmaDaRustla 13y ago

Nice to see a multi-language HTTP library, but I won't be stepping away from python-requests.org anytime soon.

pudquick 13y ago
100% agree on this one. Probably the only thing that immediately appealed to me for this project's python version was the integrated asynchronous requests capability. With version v0.13.0+ of python-requests, async functionality was split out by the maintainer to https://github.com/kennethreitz/grequests https://github.com/kennethreitz/grequests (and it's a light wrapper over requests + gevent).
kenneth_reitz 13y ago
<3

calinet6 13y ago

Just throwing in my vote for changing your name. My first thought was "You're kidding, right?"

dljsjr 13y ago

I'm going to operate completely under the assumption that the library authors didn't choose the Unicorn name with intentional malice, and that their motivations were entirely benevolent. It looks like a nice enough library, congrats on all of your hard work. That said, this name is going to foster a lot of ill will in the community, for all of the reasons already mentioned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5597455 Additionally, as has been mentioned, the GitHub Angry Unicorn, whether permission was given or not, is most likely related to the fact that GitHub uses the Unicorn Rack server and are proponents of the software. In addition, the Ruby port of this library presents itself as "unicorn-rest", which could very easily be interpreted as either disingenuous or as a form of "coat-tail riding" off the name/notoriety of the existing Unicorn.

jrabone 13y ago
Ill will with the Ruby community, maybe, but fuck 'em. As long as it's unique in the Maven namespace, I don't care and neither should they/you.

anonfunction 13y ago

Everyone, we are listening! We are throwing around new names but they all suck. Any ideas?

willismichael 13y ago
Centaur, Minotaur, Pegasus, Satyr, Gryphon...
- willismichael 13y ago
  If you want to go with Gryphon, here's a nice piece of open-source artwork: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$monsters$transparent$gryphon.png http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/pics/core$images$portraits$mo...
  - nijiko 13y ago
    Wow, are you sure this is open-source? We are going over names and this one seems the fastest to replace unicorn with.
    - willismichael 13y ago
      Yeah, it's from Battle for Wesnoth (www.wesnoth.org), all of their core artwork is GPL2 licensed. If I remember right, there is some talk in their forums encouraging other open source games to use their artwork. If you are interested you ought to look around their community for the right person to ask permission. EDIT: Found a related forum discussion: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34892&p=505075 http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=34892&...
      - anonfunction 13y ago
        Thanks so much! We ended up going with Unirest, which we think is a great fit for the project. I just wanted to say I appreciate your help.

alpb 13y ago

This one should get a CocoaPods package ASAP.

coolsunglasses 13y ago

The text isn't very readable.

andyfleming 13y ago
It looks like part of the line "<url>http://maven.mashape.com/releases</url> http://maven.mashape.com/releases</url> is being made into a lighter pink because of the "//" being marked as a single-line comment by the syntax highlighter.

sinzone 13y ago

Some suggestions on the new name? - uniape - mashcorn - cornmash - unimashape - Restape - RestMash

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jagthedrummer 13y ago

Definitely needs a name change. This was an incredibly poor choice and makes me question whether I could ever feel comfortable using the software of an entire organization that is capable of making such a poor choice. Especially since they admit that they knew it would be confusing.

gfalcao 13y ago

This is hilarious

mythz 13y ago

I personally like my HTTP Util thin DRY extensions over .NET WebRequest better - more readable and concise and you retain access to the underlying HttpWebRequest so you don't lose any flexibility: https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack/wiki/Http-Utils https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack/wiki/Http-Utils

dschep 13y ago

Aside from the name crazyness this seems like a very thin layer on top of existing libraries to create a shared API across languages. Being mainly a Python dev, I see little reason to use it instead of Requests. It has a similar API for the basic verbs but nothing else. A quick glance at the code indicates to me that it doesn't have alot of the other features requests has (eg: simpler auth, cookies. builtin connection pooling). And worse it will explode on large a large response[1] [1] https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-python/blob/master/unicorn/__init__.py#L70 https://github.com/Mashape/unicorn-python/blob/master/unicor...

jrabone 13y ago

Christ, the responses on here are absolutely what you'd expect from anyone remotely connected with the Ruby "community" - or at least a bunch of people who don't have sufficient experience with Java to comment on whether a fluent API is an improvement on the Apache HttpClient API, or HttpURLConnection (God help us, despite what Android devs think). When you've finished pissing on the colour scheme, or questioning whether the logo is a "rip off" (clue: used by permission), perhaps you can all go back to upgrading Rails, or stacking your gems in reverse version-number order, or whatever it is you do. Also - Java. It's the FIFTH word on the page reading Western-style. How the hell can you miss it? Too eager to get to the comments tab?

johns 13y ago
It's Java, PHP, Python, Ruby AND Objective-C. I think the naming criticisms are fair.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jrabone 13y ago
  Can't hear anyone else over the sound of the Ruby people...

mrinterweb 13y ago

The name alone of this project is very frustrating. As pointed out, there is ruby application server named Unicorn that is quite popular. The ruby application server has the exact same logo except this project chose to flip the logo. This is intentionally confusing. I might be able to appreciate this library if they chose a different name and image, but I can't support a project that is intentionally leading to confusion. It is so bad that it seems like this project is trying to be an imposter of an original project. Is there no shame in open source?

skytalon 13y ago

A name suggestion: slighttp (from Simple LIGHTweight HTTP) (Just 205 results on google)

jack-r-abbit 13y ago

Of the supported languages, I only know PHP so I can't comment on the others. (and I don't really care what name/logo it uses) It looks like pretty clean work. However, this task has never really been a problem for me in PHP so I'm not likely to use it. But kudos to the author for trying to help out fellow programmers. And good luck.

ismaelc 13y ago

Hi guys, this is Chris from Mashape. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. We acknowledge the naming hoopla and are working hard to resolve it. But in behalf of Mashape I'd like to assure everyone that the library was created with the purpose of helping developers with cross platform HTTP requests. As such, we would like to invite everyone on 2 things: 1) Suggest a new name/branding for Unicorn, and 2) Contribute/suggest/fix the library as you see fit :) You can write to me directly too! chris@mashape.com . Looking forward to your comments!

sinzone 13y ago

We hear you! We're updating everything right now.