Houston, err I mean, Jonsey, we've got a problem: there's another Hugo

This is a discussion / support forum for the Hugo programming language by Kent Tessman. Hugo is a powerful programming language for making text games / interactive fiction with multimedia support.

Hugo download links: https://www.generalcoffee.com/hugo
Roody Yogurt's Hugo Blog: https://notdeadhugo.blogspot.com
The Hugor interpreter by RealNC: http://ifwiki.org/index.php/Hugor

Moderators: Ice Cream Jonsey, joltcountry

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Tdarcos
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Houston, err I mean, Jonsey, we've got a problem: there's another Hugo

Post by Tdarcos »

There is a web framework for building static websites. Guess what this open-source software product is called? Considering what this subforum is about, if you guessed "Hugo," you're absolutely right. As I quote from their website:
[Hugo Logo]
The world’s fastest framework for building websites

Hugo is one of the most popular open-source static site generators. With its amazing speed and flexibility, Hugo makes building websites fun again.

Their website is: https://gohugo.io/

There are two reasons I'm mentioning it here. (1) So people don't think this is a site supporting the Hugo IF Programming Language. (2) So anyone doing Google, Duck-Duck-Go, or (for the masochistic) Bing searches for (our) Hugo-related items, to be aware that this is going to change (or screw up, depending on your opinion) the results.

Nominally, a search on "Hugo programming" would exclude things like the prestigious Hugo Award for Science fiction, or reviews of the Doris Day movie Teacher's Pet (one of the characters is named "Hugo Pine.") As well as lots of other unrelated items. But not now.

So if you do on-line searches for Hugo Programming Language items, be aware you may get false hits because of this new product. On Google, this usurper has the top four hits on that exact phrase.
Alan Francis wrote a book containing everything men understand about women. It consisted of 100 blank pages.

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Re: Houston, err I mean, Jonsey, we've got a problem: there's another Hugo

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Yeah, I used to really really think less of people that named their thing after things that already existed. There were computer games that came out called APB, Tempest, Witness and Vampyr that were already the names of games. I mean, how do you not have some awareness of that, how do you barrel on ahead anyway.

Then Roody and I were going to make a game called Uncanny Valley that got stalled. An adventure game came out with that name so if we ever do pick that back up we'd have to rename it.
Mike Sousa and I designed a game we haven't finished called Jay Schilling's Edge of Chaos. A game was announced last year called Edge of Chaos.
In 2012 I started working on a game with a particular title and shelved it for a while. I was always planning on returning to it. In November of 2017 a shoot 'em up came out on Steam with that name. I am making the decision to stick with the name I picked, it's a text adventure, it's never going to be on Steam it doesn't matter. I'm going to look like a clown to the guy that made the shoot 'em up, I know.

So while I used to not think much of name duplicators, as with all things, as I get older I don't care. Besides, Hugo is just a very common name for things. Before Kent picked it for his Interactive Fiction language, it was the name of a French author, it was the name given to awards for science fiction, it was the name of a line of three adventure games (Hugo's House of Horrors). The name's been around.

Perhaps it was inevitable that another thing picked it. And the other thing is, there just aren't that many people programming in the IF language with it these days. I've got at least two more releases for it coming out but I am not sure if anyone else is planning such a thing. Which is a shame, it's absolutely my favorite language to have ever programmed in, the first I truly knew, the one I use every day and I think it has made and can make really great games.
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!

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Re: Houston, err I mean, Jonsey, we've got a problem: there's another Hugo

Post by Tdarcos »

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Tue Sep 03, 2019 8:18 pm Yeah, I used to really really think less of people that named their thing after things that already existed. There were computer games that came out called APB, Tempest, Witness and Vampyr that were already the names of games. I mean, how do you not have some awareness of that, how do you barrel on ahead anyway.
There is a solution to that problem, although for a small project or something on a shoestring budget it probably isn't available. It's been around for about 175 years, and I can describe it in one character. ® That's what that symbol means, "registered trademark." You pick a word or phrase, do some checking to see if someone else is using it (search for usage, check for websites, etc.) then if no one else is, you submit the paperwork to the US Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO"), along with the fee which ranges from $225 to $400. Then you decide whether you are filing an intent-to-use (for a mark you haven't started using yet) or one you already started using (then you send in copies of the packaging) and if approved it's published in the Trademark Official Gazette and if there is no opposition (by a third party)[*] the PTO sends you a certificate of registration, allowing you to use the R-in-a-circle mark - ® - on your packaging and advertisements, and issue cease-and-desist letters, or sue, someone else using your registered mark on their same or similar products. The only real problems, for small projects, is (1) the cost; and (2) if you file an intent-to-use registration you have to file a new (with another fee) registration once you've actually used the mark.

But seriously, these days if there isn't a domain (or at least a few webpages) found, someone else is likely to think the name they picked isn't in use. Or if the webpages are several years old they may figure (probably correctly) that you've abandoned it, in which case the name is available for someone else to use. Or they may not be aware that before picking a product name you're supposed to perform due diligence and check that the name is available to use. Failure to do this means if you can't prove you used it first, someone who registers that name can demand you stop doing so (and pick a new name) plus possibly monetary damages.

These days, with computer programs the chances of picking a duplicate name are very high. While this is Android-only, do you now how many apps are in the Google Play Store, which haws only existed since 2008? Over 2.7 million. The Oxford English Dictionary says English only has about 600,000 words, unless there are a lot of "coined" words ("Google," "Exxon," and "Kodak" were coined words) a lot of apps are going to use the same or similar names.

And that estimate ignores iPhones, web frameworks, desktop applications, mainframe and server applications, and specialized devices.

----
[*] One time I was over at the PTO search room, and I got taking to a trademark attorney who mentioned that Toro (the lawnmower company) is very protective of its mark, and if you try to register that name or something similar, - even for things unrelated to lawnmowers - they will file an opposition. The won some, they lost some, but they are very protective of their name.
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Re: Houston, err I mean, Jonsey, we've got a problem: there's another Hugo

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Well, one of the other issues is that some cunts on Wikipedia deleted the Hugo programming language article. I think you were involved with it back in the day, a few years ago. The article was fine and always had been fine. I forget what started the changes on it, but some cunt admin or mod, whatever term they use, made it his pet project to delete it and got his buddies involved. It was amazing just how openly duplicitous they were being. They were requesting IP checks on Billy Mays's Wikipedia account, they ignored your comment (not kidding - the admin that makes the final call to delete it has to say how many Keep and Delete votes there were. He simply IGNORED YOUR COMMENT when he wrote how many keeps there were because, again, these people are trash. But it looks better for him if his shit is ever reviewed, which it would never be.)

So even though everyone, literally everyone except for the original mod and his one buddy thought it should stay, they deleted it and had the title just go to text adventures. There was a section on "other text adventures" and Hugo was listed there.

The word Hugo had a link to the IF Wiki.

Some other dickhead, months later, says, hey we can't have a LINK in the area that isn't for EXTERNAL LINKS!!!!!!!!!!! Which is the dumbest shit ever, let me see if I can find the change.

Oh yeah, here it is. Grueslayer on Wikipedia, if you ever find this, you are an unhelpful fucking moron:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =761800434

And then because that dumb fuck removed the link, again, for no reason other than his say so, some other asshole comes along and deletes it completely out of Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... =892011363

It's amazing what total pieces of shit who aren't helping anybody can do when they all work together. If you still have authority over there, Paul, I'd love to at least see Hugo, the programming language that has a game on Steam and is going to have a second at some point, get mentioned in the Interactive_fiction article. I've given up ever trying to use Wikipedia again.
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!

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