Spec# is a terrible name. C-clef would have been better.

Microsoft Research's RiSE has another pre-print out on Spec#. The Spec# specification language is old news by now, and so it's unfortunate that the name "Spec#" has not been changed because it means it probably is going to stick. Unlike the name "C#", "Spec#" is terribly unimaginative. It's like naming your first child "Hermione" and then naming your second child "Two".

Wouldn't it have made more sense to continue the musical analogy? For example, a C-clef is a conventional symbol from music theory that is used to specify the desired meaning of the lines that follow. Thus, it makes a lot of sense to use it as a name for specification language for C#, right?

Instead, we get Spec# (i.e., "specsharp"), which actually seems quite dull...