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Re: Larch name

Paolo,

    Why Larch is called Larch?

There is no important reason.  It is not an acronym or hidden message or
anything.  It is just an English word that: is easy to pronounce, spell,
and remember; has neutral to pleasant connotations; and wasn't being used
to name any other project we were aware of.  John Guttag grew up near
Larchmont, and is fond of Larch trees.

A historical footnote: During the early days of what became the Larch
project, the members at MIT had been calling it Bicycle (again, for no
important reason).  On very short notice, John was told he'd have to change
the name before a grant proposal was mailed off to DARPA "because, can you
imagine the fuss if some Senator discovers that DARPA is funding research
on bicycles?!"  So he picked Larch.

It is definitely not true that we were intending a pun with "large," so
that we could say that "Large programs need Larch specifications."  By the
time we noticed the pun, the name was already in use, and the pun didn't
seem to be enough of a reason to change it.

Jim H.