Why Cactus?
Here are some stories and reasons about the 'Cactus' name:)
-
It's a cool name ... Short, easy to pronounce, same meanings in all
spoken languages, has some punch ...
-
There is a famous french song by Jacques Dutronc about cacti that
goes "le monde entier est un cactus ..." (the whole world is a
Cactus). The lyrics is available
here
and the music (midi format)
here
. It is a
song that says that cacti are everywhere and that everything is
a cactus. I like that ! :) ...
-
The J2EEUnit name (which was the previous name of Cactus) was fine
but there was a Sun trademark on the J2EE part of the name ...
-
Cactus is actually an acronym ... ha ha .. for Computer Assisted
Construction of Test Units for the Server, or Cool and Comprehensive
Test Units for the Server, or ... (please send your suggestions to
the Cactus mailing list).
-
The company for which I worked (
OCTO Technology) had organized a diner
to celebrate our 3 years of existence. I was looking for a new name
for J2EEUnit. I asked some workmates to help me look for a name. We
tried to find a name which had something to do with the Apache name.
We thought of indians of course ... we tried several names and then
Dominique said "Cactus" (you know, indians, the desert, cacti.
That's one cliche of indians we have here in France !). I immediatly
liked it ...
-
The Cactus name has a rich visual iconography associated with it. So
it should be possible to find a nice and funny logo (I'm still
looking for the perfect logo ... If you have propositions, you can
send them to the Cactus mailing list
(there is currently a logo contest
going on ! Try defeating the current logo if you think you
can do better !).
-
A Cactus is full of spines. Visually you can imagine that a piece of
code that has gone through this rigourous and comprehensive testing
has had all its bug revealed ! ...
-
We can imagine a motto like "Tested on Apache-Cactus" !
-
In Australia it is a widely used phrase that refers to something
that it not functioning correctly. So the name 'Cactus' is a very
appropriate name for a testing tool. See
the Australian Slang page.
-
Any more...?
-Vincent Massol
