Why is it called "Squeak"?
Last updated at 4:59 pm UTC on 16 January 2006
There are several stories about where the name Squeak comes from and why it was chosen. Quite possibly none of them is true, because mostly you will just get evasive answers if you ask this question:
"I recall at SqueakEnd'00 we pestered Dan to no-end for the story behind the name. Dan if I recall correctly just grinned at us." (John McIntosh)
- He gave the same kind of reply at the OOPSLA / Splash Squeak BOF in 2001. (Henrik Gedenryd)
Anyway, collect these stories here!
"It was the Mac folder name in early 96 that I used to hold the new system files and keep it separate from some of the other Smalltalks that were on my machine. We were being wooed by Disney at that point and I thought that whatever happened there would be some kind of mouse in the future of this system. A month or so later the question of a name for the system came up in a group meeting and I said that I had been using the name "Squeak". Everybody liked it, and that was that." (according to Alan Kay on the Squeak Mailing Lists on 2002/03/14)
