Why do people pronounce GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) like goo-dal?

Question

Ok, a bit of a silly question, but:

I've heard people pronouncing the library GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) like goooo-dal. My natural inclination was to pronounce it geeee-dal, as in the letter 'g'-dal.

Any explanation on how goo-dal came to be popular? Was goo-gle involved?

They do? I've never heard anyone pronounce it 'goo-dal' despite Frank Warmerdam's preference quoted by chryss. I'll continue with 'gee-dal' but I hope there won't be a GIS-community schism - a 'googee-gate', if you will :) — MappaGnosis, Sep 21 '13 at 07:35
I've heard co-workers using "Goodle" "Ogre" and "Poodle" for GDAL, OGR, and PDAL, but I favour "Gee-Dal", "oh-gee-ar", and "Pee-Dal" — smithkm, Sep 27 '13 at 02:23
@Luke Thr only official PDAL pronunciation is the same one as GDAL http://www.pdal.io/faq.html — Howard Butler, Feb 02 '16 at 00:14
@HowardButler 'twas a joke :) but not really relevant anymore now that Frank no longer pronounces GDAL "goodle" :( — user2856, Feb 02 '16 at 00:37

chryss · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-26T22:02:00.623

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Quoting Frank Warmerdam, the maintainer:

I pronounce it "goodle". I had originally thought to call it the "Geospatial Object Oriented Data Abstraction Library" (GOODAL) to make the right sound obvious, but I was too lazy to type GOODAL all the time, so I dropped the OO part. Some folks might say I dropped it from more than the name. :-)

Most folks pronounce the library "gee-dal" which is ok too but not my preference.

FWIW, I find the "goodle" pronunciation gets misheard more often than not, and use the one that spontaneously comes to mind from the spelling.

Edit: As Ragi pointed out in the comments, Frank himself switched away from his original pronunciation during the time he was working at Google. Personally, I've heard people close to the project use the "goodle" pronunciation.

edited Sep 26 '13 at 22:02

answered Sep 20 '13 at 23:08

chryss

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Actually, Frank started pronouncing it "G-DAHL" since he started working at Google. Every time he said GOODAL, people inside Google thought he said "Google" and so he had to make a stronger distinction. Even though he has moved on from Google, I still hear him say "G-DAHL" every time I see him at the GeoMeetup :) – Ragi Yaser Burhum Sep 24 '13 at 17:50
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proof from FOSS4G :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DHD4RfwC4#t=84 – Ragi Yaser Burhum Sep 24 '13 at 18:03
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He has made a wrong name choice. First, he chooses a name that sounds Just like google and second he excludes the "O"s and still call it goodal. – multigoodverse Sep 26 '13 at 23:39
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@ArditSulce, excepting that "goodal" is older than google. ;-) – matt wilkie Sep 28 '13 at 06:35

Why do people pronounce GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) like goo-dal?

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