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For what it's worth, the name is obviously a pun and a small wink to the Graal VM [1]. Not sure there's any intention to reference TempleOS's HolyC.

[1] https://github.com/graalvm/



It could also be a play on the phrase "Holy shit!"


Both the reference to the GraalVM and a pun are intentional.


Maybe make its slogan: "HolyJit, it's fast!" -- with the double meaning and all.


As long as the performance of this new engine isn’t jitty.


“Could” if that’s not intentional then this browser will fail lol


This isn't a browser.


Ummm... it’s for Firefox... no?


I mean, maybe, in theory, someday. But the browser would still be "Firefox", that is, very few people would even be aware of this name, regardless of what the name is.


lol, how much of the Firefox today is still Firefox of the beginning? :D


You'd be surprised. When working on Firefox I regularly run into files with "Copyright 1999 Netscape Communications..." file headers.


How much of NSPR is left in there? It's been a long time since I looked at the codebase.


NSPR is still all over the tree. Off the top of my head there's some log functionality, the print format strings, and the environment variable support in use. Searchfox turns up a bunch more: https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/search?q=PR_&case=true...


I think you must’ve taken my comment too seriously... I agree that Firefoxs success does not depend on the meaning behind the name holyjit lol. It was just a joke.

The main point was that if they came up with this name without the intention of punning holy shit, I have low confidence in their abilities to succeed in general and with Firefox in particular. But also don’t take this too seriously.


Last I heard Terry Davis got kicked out of his parent's house and is now living out of his car. Something about an upcoming court case he's involved in as well.

He has a small following on Reddit and users post updates of his whereabouts from time to time. He still sporadically streams live video to the TempleOS site. Last broadcast was from an internet cafe.


Does Terry still post here? I just went to my settings to turn on dead posts.


I saw a couple of dead comments from him here on HN earlier today or yesterday evening actually. First time in a long while I'd come across his comment so that was kind of random.

Edit: The comments were posted 6 hours ago, check his user page https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TempleOS


mods, thanks for not permabanning him. it’s nice to read his posts and see he’s doing okay


Really tragic case, Terry. Doubtful that TempleOS would exist without his schizophrenia, but everyone would be much better off emotionally if he just took his medication...


> everyone would be much better off emotionally if he just took his medication

You say that as if the schizophrenic person, someone who lives in an alternate reality due to psychosis, has any kind of agency over taking his medication. You can only make that choice when you're sane, and even then the drugs aren't perfect and people routinely decide to come off them for some psychotic reason - yes, you can become psychotic while on anti-psychotics - and failing that they come off them because they're so ashamed of being mentally ill from all those condescending and "well-meaning" (read: superior) people telling them what to do and how defective they are all the time that they want to prove they can handle it. Plus there's the issue that the alternate reality is way more interesting than this one.

Your suggestion that it's somehow Terry's fault is about as helpful as telling a homeless person - who is much more likely to have a psychotic illness by the way - to "just get a job".


It’s generally a bad and dangerous idea, especially for someone who is schizophrenic, but antipsychotics can have very serious side effects, and I think it’s painting with a brush that’s a bit too broad to suggest that someone would only stop taking them for “some psychotic reason”. People who take these medications are often facing some very difficult trade offs.


Please don't put words in my mouth.


>people routinely decide to come off them for some psychotic reason

Sometimes it's for a non-psychotic (but maybe ill-advised) reason like "they made me obese and diabetic."


> people tell you you can't handle being off the meds

> you'll show them

> go off the meds

> you can't handle it

> man fuck those people tho, it's all their fault


"Voices hearer" here. I've been mostly off antipsychotics for 7 years now (over 30 yo). If antipsychotics did just cut "voices" down I would be happy to take them, but unfortunately most of them have sedation and motivational side effects that are harder to bear than the "voices" themselves, which also I don't like. However, it comes handy to have them at hand during those occasional periods of insomnia, since my health priority is keeping a solid routine in study, sports and sleep pattern.


There is absolutely nothing wrong with you varying your medication in order to manage side effects. That's a very good reason. However, parent said:

> and failing that they come off them because they're so ashamed of being mentally ill from all those condescending and "well-meaning" (read: superior) people telling them what to do and how defective they are all the time that they want to prove they can handle it.

Which is a really bad reason.


>For what it's worth, the name is obviously a pun and a small wink to the Graal VM

It might be that, but not "obviously". In fact it could also be totally unrelated.

One can imagine devs naming something "Holy" without wanting to reference TempleOS, the Graal VM etc.

Religious inspired references are perfectly common in themselves.


http://nbp.github.io/slides/HolyJit/JitTeamIntro/ pretty much proves it. Mouse over page 1 and you read:

"The name is a reference to another project named GraalVM, except that the goal of this project is not to make a VM, but only to make a JIT as a library."


This settles it then!


Hate to be a downer but I don't get the pun at all.


Graal is an archaic spelling of grail.


The pun: J -> Sh


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail , "Graal" is an archaic spelling of "Grail".


FWIW, it's the current spelling in some languages (e.g. French).


Actually it is speculated that the the origin ist "Sang(re) Real" ( royal blood ) which metamorphosed into San Graal. Looking for it meant to search for the ( possible) lost blood line of Jesus, I think.


“According to the Catholic Encyclopedia this is a false etymology.” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Grail#Etymology

It’s been around for a while but was most recently popularised by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code.


Ah interesting, thanks! I'll be more explicit about "in English" next time.




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