喵肉翻译 “Delphi”的由来

cyycoish

chingrammers之间有句话“聪明的程序员用Delphi，真正的程序员用Cpp”，是不是这样呢？
Delphi这个名字又是如何取得的呢？
Delphi的开发人员之一 Danny Thorpe 曾经写过一篇文章叙述了整个起名的过程，
原文链接：http://edn.embarcadero.com/article/20396
老C找来翻译了一下，纯正猫肉翻译，不是鸡饭哦！
原文：

1. 
   
2. Why the name "Delphi?"
   
3. by Danny Thorpe
   
4. "Delphi" started out as a beta codename for a closely guarded skunkworks project at Borland: a next-generation visual development environment for Windows based on Borland's Object Pascal programming language. The codename hatched in mid 1993, after the development team had been through about 6 months of deep research, proof-of-concept exercises, and market analysis. Members of the then Pascal development team were hanging around R&D Manager Gary Whizin's office brainstorming clever codenames to use for the new product. It was not a large office, but it was not a large team either - about 10 people between R&D, QA, Pubs, and Marketing. It would have been odd not to see Anders Heilsberg, Chuck Jazdzewski, Allen Bauer, Zack Urlocker, Richard Nelson, myself, and several other regulars jawing away on some topic or another in Gary's office. For the codename jam sessions, there may have been some overflow into the hallway.
   
5. Borland has a long history of "unusual" codenames, some with catchy slogans or backgrounds that tie the odd name to the market or product focus. A codename should have no obvious connection to the product, so that if an eavesdropper overhears the name in conversation it won't be too obvious what product is being discussed. The difference between an everyday disposable codename a great codename is the pithy passphrase behind it. The most memorable for me was the codename for Quattro Pro 4.0: "Budda". Why? It was to assume the Lotus position!
   
6. So we were sitting in Gary's office, kicking around weird and wacky codename possibilities. The strategic decision to make database tools and connectivity a central part of the new Pascal product had been made only a few days before, so Gary was keen on having a codename that played up the new database focus of the proposed product, and of its development team. The database shift was no small matter - I remember having grave reservations about "polluting" the Pascal tools with database arcana that took me almost a year to shake off. It was a big gamble for Borland, but it was very carefully measured, planned, and implemented. In hindsight, making Delphi a database product was exactly what was needed to break Borland's Pascal tools out of the Visual Basic - C++ market squeeze play and set Delphi head and shoulders above traditional Windows development tools.
   
7. Gary kept coming back to the codename "Oracle", referring to SQL connectivity to Oracle servers. "Oracle" didn't fly with the group, though. Aside from the obvious confusion with the same-name company and server product, the name itself implied server stuff, whereas the product we were building was (at that time) a client building tool, a way to talk to Oracle and other servers.
   
8. How do you talk to an oracle? "The Oracle at Delphi" was the word association that popped into my head. So I offered up "Delphi": If you want to talk to [the] Oracle, go to Delphi.
   
9. The suggestion wasn't an instant hit. It's an old name, an old place, a pagan temple in the ruins of a dead civilization. Not exactly an inspiring association for a new product! As some press articles later noted, the Delphic Oracle was particularly infamous for giving out cryptic or double-edged answers - not a great association for a data management tool. Asking a question of the oracle was free to all, but having the oracle's answer interpreted and explained (compiled?) cost a pretty drachma. (The marketing guys liked that part)
   
10. Overall, though, the "Delphi" codename had a classier ring to it than the sea of spent puns that littered the room. Pascal is a classic programming language, so it just felt fitting somehow to associate a Pascal-based development tool with a classical Greek image. And as Greek mythologies go, the temple at Delphi is one of the least incestuous, murderous, or tragic ancient Greek icons you'll find.
    
11. We went through a lot of codenames during the development of that 1.0 product, coining a different codename for each press or corporate briefing of the beta product. This was an effort to limit rumors and allow us to track the source of leaks. The last thing we wanted was for you-know-who to get wind of what we were up to. Through all these disposable codenames, the Delphi codename stuck. Towards the end of the development cycle, marketing started using the Delphi codename across all prepress and corporate briefings, and as the codename for the final beta releases. That got the rumor mills talking to each other, and the tools industry was abuzz with talk about this secret project at Borland codenamed "Delphi". J.D. Hildebrand wrote a whole editorial in Windows Tech Journal about the "Delphi buzz" months before the product was launched. (paraphrased: "I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you this: Delphi is going to change our lives.")
    
12. When it came time to pick a retail product name, the nominations were less than inspiring.. The "functional" name, a name that describes what the product actually does and is therefore much easier to market and sell, would have been AppBuilder. This name actually still appears in some IDE internal class names, such as the class name of the IDE main window. (R&D caved in to the functional name pressures and set about implementing it early) But AppBuilder didn't light up people's imagination. It didn't work well internationally - functional names are only functional in their language of origin.
    
13. Thankfully, a few months before Delphi was scheduled for release Novell shipped their own product called Visual AppBuilder. There was much rejoicing in the Borland halls, for at last the "AppBuilder" debate was laid to rest. With the functional name taken out of the running, suggestions started coming from all quarters to use the Delphi codename as the product name.
    
14. Delphi wasn't home-free yet. The lead marketing person had legitimate concerns about the extra effort that would be required to build name recognition in the marketplace for an "iconic" (opposite of functional) product name, so he requested a vote of the development team. There was only one vote against (guess who?). Much to our chagrin, someone came to the conclusion that the development team's views were not an accurate representation of the marketplace ("sample error" was the phrase I heard), and pressed for a survey of the beta testers. When that poll didn't produce the result he wanted, the survey was broadened again to include Borland's international subsidiaries, press, market analysts, stock analysts, corporate accounts, software retailers, and probably a few K-Mart shoppers. It became a bit of a comedy: the harder people tried to dismiss "Delphi" for the product name, the more it gained support.
    
15. "Delphi" has a classical ring to it. It has a consistent meaning/word association worldwide in all languages. It has no embarassing vulgar slang meanings in other languages (that I'm aware of). Most of all, the marketing guys had done a marvelous job of building up market anticipation and buzz around the "Delphi" name. The market was primed and ravenous for this thing called "Delphi".
    
16. And that, boys and girls, is how the Delphi product got its name.
    
17. Danny Thorpe Senior Engineer, Delphi R&D Inprise Corp
    
18. 
    
19. Copyright (c) 1999 by Danny Thorpe
    

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译文：
为啥叫“Delphi？”
作者：Danny Thorpe
        Delphi作为一个beta版的开发代号，其源于Borland一个严格保密的“臭鼬工厂”❶级别的项目：基于Borland ObjPascal语言的Windows次世代可视化开发环境。在经过了开发小组长达6个月的深入思索，实验了这个概念的可行性，和做市场分析之后，这个开发代号于1993年中叶孵化成型。接下来Pascal语言的开发小组成员在研发部门经理——Gary Whizin的办公室周围踱着步子思索将这个绝顶聪明的开发代号用在新产品上。这个办公室并不算大，但是同样来自研发部门，质量管控，发行处❷和市场部门大约10个人的开发团队也不大。在Gary的办公室内，Anders Heilsberg, Chuck Jazdzewski, Allen Bauer, Zack Urlocker, Richard Nelson,❸我，和一些其他的常规人员在一些话题、还有针对对方的喋喋不休的情景并不是啥稀奇的事了。到了讨论开发代号的胶着环节，可能就会有一些对话响彻到门外过道里去。
        Borland有着一段起开发代号不走寻常路的悠久历史，其中一些开发代号名称有着带有稀奇古怪、指向市场和产品卖点的朗朗上口的口号和其背后的故事。一个开发代号不应该显示其与产品的直接联系，因此若是一名窃听者偷听到了我们对话中的名称，也不会太直接地显现出被讨论的产品是啥。与每日即用然后随之丢弃的开发代号的区别是，成就一个优秀的开发代号是它背后的简练口诀。令我记忆犹新的是Quattro Pro 4.0❹的开发代号——“菩萨”。为啥？因为这个开发代号暗示Lotus(莲花)的位置。➎
        就这样，我们坐在Gary的办公室内，围绕着开发代号所有可能的情况探讨着其中的滑稽与怪诞。制作数据库工具和新的Pascal语言产品中心连接性战略性决议在数日前已经完成，所以Gary更倾向于一个能够表达所提及产品的新数据库特性的开发代号，并且可以关乎它的开发团队。数据库的转移不是一件小事——我记得消除Pascal数据库工具遗留问题的死穴➏我就花了将近一年时间去解决它。这是Borland的一次豪赌，但是它被事先缜密推敲、计划并最终被实现了。事后一想，将Delphi做成一个数据库产品确实是Borland Pascal工具给Visual Basic － C++产品链使绊子，打压他们市场销售的必要之举，并且如此这般的做法将Delphi带至超越传统Windows开发工具的佼佼者地位。
        参照Oracle服务的SQL连接性，Gary反复琢磨Oracle这个开发代号。尽管Oracle不合群➐。另外一个关于同名公司服务产品的困窘是，鉴于（当时）该产品被开发成一个客户端构造工具—— 一个与Oracle和其他服务对话互通的途径，名称本身含有服务特征的暗示。
        怎样与“先知”沟通？先知在德尔菲呢，这句话的立意在我脑中浮现。所以我的提议是“Delphi”：如果你想与先知“甲骨文”➑对话的话，去希腊德尔菲吧。
        此提议并未一炮走红。Delphi是一个古名了，一个毁灭于失落文明的异教➒神庙。的确不是一个关于一件新产品的曼妙联想啊！照一些之后出版的文献中提及到的，智慧之神因其善于给人以晦涩难懂的或是一语双关的答案而臭名远扬——并不是一个数据管理工具的很好联想。向先知问个问题易如反掌，可是解答先知给出的答案（他们指编译吗？）却花了好一笔希腊币。（那帮子搞市场的家伙就这样子的）➓
        大致上，总之开发代号：Delphi 比散布在办公室内那些被废弃的成堆俏皮话有着更优雅的回响。Pascal是一门优雅的程序语言，所以只是觉得将一个基于Pascal的开发工具与一个经典的希腊神话故事景象联系在一起再合适不过了。并且按照希腊神话讲的，坐落于德尔菲神迹是你能找到的距离有关乱伦，血腥，或者其他希腊的古老悲剧最遥远的了。①
        我们在开发1.0版本产品的时候，检阅了一大堆的开发代号，为每一个出版商或者合作的新闻发布会②铸就了一个非同寻常的开发代号。这是我们对于降低留言影响和将源码泄漏控制在可控范围作出的一个努力。我们要做的最后一件事就是让 你知道的那位③ 得到些风声。通过全部这些废弃的开发代号，代号Delphi被敲定了。向着软件生命周期的末尾市场部门开始对所有的出版社发布会使用Delphi，并作为最终的公测发布版本的代号。在产品正式上线之前，那对于每一个人都得到了谣言粉碎机般的效果，于是整个开发工具产业都将Borland名为Delphi的秘密项目吵得沸沸扬扬。产品上线的数月前 J.D. Hildebrand 就写了一整个以“Delphi的喧嚣”为内容的社论发布在《Windows 技术刊》上。（释义为：我不能告诉你它是什么，但我能这样告诉你：Delphi正准备改变我们的生活。）
        当为销售产品取名的时候，任命低于灵感。。实用名，一个能够体现产品具体能做什么和该产品之所以能易于销售的名称，将是AppBuilder。事实上，这个名称仍然出现在一些IDE内部类的名称当中，就像IDE主窗体中的类名。(研发部门在来自短时间内完成产品和起个实用名方面的压力下被压垮了)但是 AppBuilder 不能使人们为之眼前一亮。它并不能起到全球性的作用——实用名只体现了在那个区域的地方性语言的功效。
        感激涕零，Delphi在几个月前赶上了发布的时间表，比 Novell 发布他们的产品 Visual AppBuilder 快了一步。Borland的大厅内充满了喜庆的色彩，因为最终 AppBuilder 的争辩得以平息。随着功能性名称就此歇菜，将Delphi开发代号作为产品名称的建议从四面八方涌来。
        Delphi的革命还未成功。市场营销部门主管对 需要在市场中建立一个“标志性的”（与实用名性质相反的）名称认识所带来的额外效应的关心理所当然。所以他要求开发团队举行投票选举。只有一张反对票（猜猜是谁？）④令我们懊恼的是有些人得出以下结论：开发小组的观点不能精确地反映市场需求。（“错误的榜样”我是这样听说的。）并且放过了一个公测调查⑤。当那次投票未产生他想要的结果，调查才被再次扩大开来以包含Borland的国际子公司，出版社，市场分析，证券分析，合伙人，软件零售商，和一些可能的K市商贩⑥。这变得充满了戏剧色彩：人们越努力去忽略Delphi这个产品名称，该名称越受好评。
        “Delphi”具有典雅的影响。它有着将世界范围内的语言联系起来的一致立意。在其他语系中它没有令人尴尬的低俗解释。（那正是我所担心的。）最重要的是，市场营销的那帮家伙们做了一件帮助建立市场预期和炒作“Delphi”这个名称的一件微妙的工作。“Delphi”开始占据主导地位，并蚕食着市场。
        那么，绅士们女士们，这就是“Delphi”产品名称的由来。
Danny Thorpe，Delphi研发部门资深工程师 Inprise⑦ 公司
版权所有 ©️ 1999 Danny Thorpe

译者注：
❶skunkworks的合理翻译为“科研部门”，但是洛马公司的臭鼬工厂人人皆知，我还不如直接翻成它得了。
❷此处原文为Pubs，Pubs有酒吧之意，这里我没敢翻译为酒吧，我想到了另外一个单词：publishers：发行部门。不知是否合理？望指点！
❸这些人当中，其中Anders Heilsberg（安德斯海尔斯伯格）是ObjPascal编译器的主要作者，同样还是Delphi1.0的首席架构师。Chuck Jazdzewski负责撰写Delphi组件及框架（framework），Allen Bauer 负责IDE的开放工具接口，Zack Urlocker 产品策划（此人后来与安德斯产生严重分歧，是导致安德斯离开Borland的重要原因之一，另一个原因，恐怕是好基友：飞利浦康离开了吧。）文章作者本人：Danny Thorpe负责运行时库的设计开发。作者后来应该是从Delphi8.0开始的Delphi For .Net架构师。
❹Quattro Pro是Borland上市的第一款Office电子表格软件，竞争对象除了众人皆知的Microsoft的Excel还有Lotus(莲花软件)的1-2-3.
➎读者读到此处不妨稍加思索，Borland Quattro Pro 4.0开发代号Budda，菩萨。菩萨一屁股坐在莲花上，表示我宝蓝拥有压倒性地位与优势，我！赢定了！哈哈。
➏此处原文为：I remember having grave reservations about "polluting" the Pascal tools with database arcana that took me almost a year to shake off.我猜想作者应该是在解决Pascal工具的版本历史遗留问题中出现的“海森堡Bug”——arcana（翻译为神秘现象）。
➐原文："Oracle" didn't fly with the group, though. 当然先知不会单飞？我翻译为：尽管“先知”不合群。谁有更好的翻译？Oracle用双引号，这里应该是个双关语。是说甲骨文公司就搞数据库，不介入软件开发工具市场，宝蓝没求到虐不开心？
➑原文方括号中出现一个定冠词The，大家想一想，加上The就是先知，不加The指的是甲骨文公司。
➒基督教称其他教种为pagan（异教）。壮哉我大FFF。
➓读到下文大家就会明白，作者在黑那帮子不懂技术搞营销还爱指指点点的长嘴营销人员。编译懂吗？程序写过吗？不懂别瞎BB。
①作者真是一个可怕的希腊黑，“乱伦”其实应该是 俄狄浦斯 的故事（高中世界通史，忘记自行wiki）。噫好hentai！好刺激！污污哒！
②corporate briefing这个真不知怎样翻译合适，应该好像貌似是“联合宣传部”之类的。
③此处超链接直接指向了“微软主页”！
④老C我猜唯一一张反对票又是市场经理的……
⑤我仿佛看到了电影《火星救援》中的NASA……
⑥ K-Mart shoppers 就是泛指廉价销售商。
⑦了解Borland历史的人都知道，宝蓝在某“给料泥棒”型CEO的带领下改了名换了姓，就开始一直走下坡路，一蹶不振。

附图：Delphi 7与Visualic 6（两大高手的巅峰对决）

我找不到合适的其他版本Delphi的图片了，尤其是正式与VB6参战的Delphi4
当然开发Delphi7时Anders Hejlsberg已经离开了Borland，
但是Delphi7在Borland也是有象征性的，她是dot Net与VCL的过渡产品。

老C在这篇文章里看出了当年Borland的宝贵精神！这就是一个公司的血统啊！
而如今我大天朝的IT企业，谁又能下得了如此口号呢：
I am fighting! especially with fruits, large numbers, tiny things, and the God!

cyycoish

回想微软的产品名真是充满了自信与挑衅：
WINdows
Visual studio (Victory)
Access （success）

元始天尊

cyycoish 发表于 2016-1-28 03:01
回想微软的产品名真是充满了自信与挑衅：
WINdows
Visual studio (Victory)

呆又肥，塞屁屁

0xAA55

元始天尊 发表于 2016-1-28 22:49
呆又肥，塞屁屁

噗，呆又肥
此外还有，威逼利诱（VB6）

watermelon

致敬宝蓝

music

印象中pascal是一个人名啊。