The problem i have with SideTable as a name is that it’s implying a very specific use case (one that could equally be served by private names), it’s also not an obvious name to developers who are not aware of terms of art.

I said a long time ago that the name WeakMap did not match the expected semantics of other languages, nor what was expected by developers but we couldn’t think of a good alternative name, and (i thought) decided that sticking with WeakMap was the best of the bad options.

—Oliver

On Dec 16, 2013, at 1:09 PM, Allen Wirfs-Brock <allen at wirfs-brock.com> wrote:

> 
> On Dec 16, 2013, at 9:34 AM, Bjoern Hoehrmann wrote:
> ...
>> 
>> (The name "SideTable" makes me think I seriously need to re-evaluate
>> what `WeakMap` is supposed to be.)
> 
> That is what was so attractive about changing the name.  
> 
> Allen
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The problem i have with SideTable as a name is that it’s implying a very specific use case (one that could equally be served by private names), it’s also not an obvious name to developers who are not aware of terms of art.

I said a long time ago that the name WeakMap did not match the expected semantics of other languages, nor what was expected by developers but we couldn’t think of a good alternative name, and (i thought) decided that sticking with WeakMap was the best of the bad options.