"MUMPS" vs. "M"
Posted on:3/24/2006
| While of little interest to outsiders, this topic was and is contentious within the MUMPS/M community. |
While of little interest to outsiders, this topic was and is contentious within the MUMPS/M community.
All of the following opinions can and have been supported by knowledgeable people at various times:
The name became M in 1993 when the M Technology Association adopted it.
The name became M on December 8th, 1995 with the approval of ANSI X11.1-1995
Both M and MUMPS are officially accepted names.
M is only an "alternate name" or "nickname" for the language, and MUMPS is still the official name.
Some of the contention arose in response to strong advocacy for the name M on the part of one particular commercial interest, InterSystems, whose CEO disliked the name MUMPS and felt that it represented a serious marketing obstacle for InterSystems. Thus advocacy for the name M to some extent became identified as alignment with InterSystems. The dispute also reflected rivalry between organizations (the M Technology Association, the MUMPS development committee, the ANSI and ISO standards committee) as to who determines the "official" name of the language. Some writers have attempted to defuse the issue by referring to the language as M[UMPS], square brackets being the customary notation for optional syntax elements.
The most recent standard (ISO/IEC 11756:1999, re-affirmed on 6 January 2005) still mentions both M and MUMPS as officially accepted names.
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