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Please make a synonym for .

"Anonymous namespace" is a colloquialism in the C++ community which has established itself, which is equivalent to "unnamed space".

There are currently no questions because I have re-tagged the three that existed by hand. However, I think it's likely that someone will eventually use this tag again.

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  • Not liking a colloquialism is not an excuse to start a crusade. It exists because people use it and understand each other when they do. The standard is not the sole way to communicate. What's next? Obnoxious comments on every posts that refers to member functions as "methods"? This attitude is the worst manifestation of the C++ community.
    – StoryTeller - Unslander Monica
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:41
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    @StoryTeller-UnslanderMonica a synonym request is not a crusade. There were three questions tagged [anonymous-namespace] so it wasn't really a useful tag anyway.
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:42
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    Making it a synonym doesn't preclude its usage. But if both terms do mean the same thing, seems like having them as synonyms would be the smart thing, right? Do you object to one being the synonym target over the other? Or you think that one shouldn't be a synonym over the other? If that's the case, posting an answer would be helpful, @StoryTeller-UnslanderMonica
    – yivi
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:42
  • If it was used only 3 times, why do we need this tag at all?
    – Dharman Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:44
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    @Dharman the [unnamed-namespace] has something like 40 questions and a lot of existing questions could arguably tagged with it for cataloging. It's just that the colloquial counterpart [anonymous-namespace] wasn't very common. You could also burninate and blacklist [anonymous-namespace] to be fair. That would be an alternative approach. I think the colloquial term is popular enough to where someone will use or attempt to use this tag sooner or later, and it's not ambiguous or an otherwise broken tag.
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:46
  • @yivi - The request might seem reasonable. The "this is isn't the standard term" reasoning is nonsense. Additionally, editing the previously non-existent tag excerpt to say to not use it, before getting the community's input is in bad faith (though given the recent posts on meta, I guess it's to be expected).
    – StoryTeller - Unslander Monica
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:49
  • It's a dead tag which used to have only three questions, and which is already a quasi-synonym because there is a more popular equivalent tag. I don't think it's bad faith to mark it "DO NOT USE".
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:51
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    Also, using unified terminology is not "nonsense" reasoning. You may take personal issue with the term, but there is obviously value in the community using standard terminology because it makes it easier to teach the language, to search for learning resources, etc. Cppreference, the C++ standard, and reputable programming books all call it "unnamed namespace". The burden of proof that there is great value in having these colloquialisms is on the people who like them.
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:53
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    There is absolutely no need to get sidetracked and argue about stuff that's not really relevant.
    – yivi
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:54
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    @StoryTeller-UnslanderMonica you can post the reasoning about your agreement or disagreement with the request with an answer, no need to bicker about previous posts on comments. If you believe any tag excerpt should be edited differently, just edit it yourself. No need to get into yet another comment war.
    – yivi
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 8:54
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    @StoryTeller-UnslanderMonica The standard isn't the only way to communicate, but it is sometimes important to distinguish between formal terms (used by a standard/de facto standard/general computer science) and informal terms which can be engineering jargon, slang and so on. In particular, knowing the correct formal term is helpful for those seeking to learn more about the topic. Tags named after jargon may therefore be unhelpful - try to google "anonymous namespace" and what pops up is at best "unnamed namespace". Might as well had googled for the formal term from the start then.
    – Lundin
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 10:02

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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In my opinion, a synonym is not required. If the proper name is unnamed-namespace then keep that tag only. If the other tag gets recreated sometime in the future, we can revisit this idea.

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  • Hmm, I was under the impression that the purpose of synonyms is to cover "common, alternate spellings or phrasings" of a tag. It seems to me like that is the case here. Why wait until the tag is recreated at some point? Would anything about the situation change once that happens?
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 9:51
  • Well, I could invert the question and ask why do it now? What would that help with? You can use the synonym tool to suggest it if you want. It doesn't require meta's attention.
    – Dharman Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 9:54
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    There isn't a strong need to do it now; it's just something that we may as well do because the two tags obviously refer to the same thing. I did try to use the synonym suggestion tool, but the 5 point hurdle is quite steep for niche tags. I've seen plenty of synonym request posts on Meta, so I was under the impression that this is an alternative path. Tbh I think the 5-point hurdle for suggesting synonyms is bad in general, but that's a topic for another meta post.
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 9:57
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    @JanSchultke Since the tag was barely used, that suggests that it wasn't particular useful. We can use the "simple burnination procedure" for tags with very few (<20) questions using it. Also there's many tags which have a specific formal meaning starting with "anonymous-" so there's a potential for mix-ups. Including the abomination anonymous + namespace which should just get retagged.
    – Lundin
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 10:08
  • @Lundin burnination seems like a reasonable alternative too. I didn't want to suggest it though (or blacklisting), since it's not a problematic tag that is ambiguous in some way. [anonymous] [namespace] really is cursed and [anonymous] is already marked "do not use", so I agree that it should just be retagged.
    – Jan Schultke
    Commented Sep 26, 2023 at 10:11

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