this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
1199 points (99.6% liked)

Programmer Humor

30341 readers
1544 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
anzo@programming.dev
Feyter@programming.dev
BurningTurtle@programming.dev
pylapp@programming.dev
1199
Free software has some glib naming conventions (feddit.uk)
submitted 2 months ago by flamingos@feddit.uk to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
157 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Toot

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dontsayaword@piefed.social 287 points 2 months ago (5 children)

and the g in gnu stands for gnu

[–] Klear@quokk.au 103 points 2 months ago (5 children)

So if I'm getting it right, gobject is short for gnugnu(...)gnuimptklibobject.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Following the modern C conventions, the text following the series of (gnu) doesn't matter and you can write anything you want there.

[–] degen@midwest.social 6 points 2 months ago

Gnugnugnufuckyou

[–] logi@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

It is front recursive so it's really "...is not unix is not unix is not unix is not unix image manipulation program tool kit object" and that first g doesn't exist.

[–] UnculturedSwine@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago

It's recursive so it's more like gnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnugnu...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago

Now you need to write a layer of typedefs to map the expanded names back to their original types.

[–] mech@feddit.org 68 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Fun fact: The K in GNU stands for Kernel.

[–] Hupf@feddit.org 18 points 2 months ago

KNURD

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

GNU does have a kernel though

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

Did make me actually laugh.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 55 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Then what does the g in gnu stand for?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 103 points 2 months ago (1 children)

you're not gonna believe this...

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’ve got g’news for you…

[–] Zink@programming.dev 7 points 2 months ago

g'news and g'day to you as well, g'lady!

[–] QBertReynolds@sh.itjust.works 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think this is sarcasm, but just in case it isn't... GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix".

[–] whosepoopisonmybuttocks@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My guess for why they chose the letter g is that gnu can be phonetically the same as just nu, but keeps people from interpreting the name of the project as a dumb spelling of "new".

[–] io@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago

gnot unix

[–] mech@feddit.org 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Gary

[–] cypherix93@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

as in the inventor of chess, THE Gary Chess?

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago

rival of George Checkers?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

All the gnus

[–] degen@midwest.social 1 points 2 months ago

Greatsoftware Notwithstanding Unix

[–] pmk@piefed.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

gnu

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Okay but what does the g stand for?

[–] justaman123@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Blue Gnu or Black Gnu?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, they missed the best part.

GNU stands for GNU's Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. And, when pronounced properly (like the animal) the G is silent. The entire Linux ecosystem has words that start with G based on an acronym where G essentially comes from nowhere, and isn't actually pronounced.

[–] rocnat@lemmy.world 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

So it depends on whether you want to pronounce it "properly" or as it was intended.

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”; it is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g, like “grew” but with the letter n instead of r.

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/pronunciation.en.html

[–] Zacryon@feddit.org 5 points 2 months ago

gnew?

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works -3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the "g" in GNU isn't silent.

Yeah, but that's wrong. It's named after the animal, and the animal is pronounced without a G sound. I'm not going to mangle the pronunciation because they screwed up.

[–] anguo@piefed.ca 3 points 2 months ago

Depends on where you're from.

[–] Zoot@reddthat.com 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Noot noot mother fucker

[–] ZombieSenpai@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

Gnoot gnoot

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 5 points 2 months ago

I can't believe they didn't put this one in there!