SwedenCpp 2018, the name odyssey
This is the first post of a two or three part blog post about SwedenCpp::Stockholm in 2018. Since in further posts I will also use the name StockholmCpp when I will write about the C++ user group of Stockholm, I think it’s a good idea to start explaining where all these names are coming from and why they exist.
From SwedenCpp to StockholmCpp
What is StockholmCpp, what happens to SwedenCpp, why is there SwedenCpp::Stockholm and what is this all about?
The 'birth' of StockholmCpp.
When I stepped in as organizer for the Stockholm C++ meetup group back in 2016 the name was already chosen. It was sweden-cpp.
Today I make jokes that it was Sweden minus Cpp, since this group never had any meetup, so I just removed the minus. What is also somehow true.
At this time Stockholm was the only active C++ user group in Sweden, so back in those days I thought the name SwedenCpp was OK.
But from the moment where Stockholm was no longer the only active C++ user group, I started to feel slightly uncomfortable with the name.
Göteborg
When Göteborg became active in 2017 and started GbgCpp, the Gothenburg C++ Meetup, I had the first concrete plan to change the name, maybe to sthlmcpp.
But there was a problem. At this time our group in Stockholm had its first meetups and people started to know us as SwedenCpp. Also, search engines brought some results to the name, which was important for me to find event sponsors. So I postponed the decision for the renaming.
Malmö
At the beginning of 2018 Malmö also got a C++ user group. The Malmö C++ User Group.
I was very excited about this and I am super proud that I could help Ólafur with essential knowledge on how to start a user group. I think it was in a tweet, or short mail, and was as verbose like this:
Get a name, a talk, a location, a date and just do it. If there is more than 1 visitor, it is a success. Repeat.
While this sounds simple, it is also the truth and the recipe to boot up a user group.
Ólafur did so and started the group. And now Malmö has an active C++ user group. Great!
But this also made it very clear to me that the name SwedenCpp could no longer stand for Stockholm only.
Stockholm
Around summer, having time during my holidays, I finally decided to make the final step and rename the Stockholm C++ meetup group.
I started to inform the people who hang around with me at our slack channel and the idea was appreciated.
I still was unsure about the name, so I did the following. I asked Björn, who manages the SwedenCpp twitter account, to create a new twitter account for Stockholm. Björn did so and created the StockholmCpp twitter account. And voila, there was the new name!
I still keep the name SwedenCpp::Stockholm as the visible meetup group name for some time, but the group URL is now meetup.com/stockholmcpp and there is also a domain stockholmcpp.se.
From August onwards I started to use the new names at our meetups. I started to introduce the name SwedenCpp::Stockholm for a soft migration and StockholmCpp as a new name that became more visible from meetup to meetup.
I also adapted the logo and added St. Erik to it. It will be used sometimes with, and sometimes without the SwedenCpp::Stockholm in it.
The name transition is also visible in the talk recordings on our youtube channel.
Not to forget! We have also a secret name, from time to time very visible, but also somehow hidden, on the meetup page. Can you spot it?
SwedenCpp, the accumulator
Learn one new programming language a year. I try to follow this advice as often as I can, even if some years are just learning something about C++ I did not know so far.
This year I made my first nodejs and java script application with some html and using some stylesheets framework. What a cool, interesting and crazy experience.
The result is https://www.swedencpp.se. So SwedenCpp still exists.
The page is not super sophisticated. It just fetches the next events for each C++ user group in Sweden, currently Stockholm-Göteborg-Malmö, and serves some static info.
There is a lot of space for improvements. I will make the source code publicly available soon (need to clean up the git history with some trash and keys I had there), and maybe - and hopefully - we will get contributions with enhancements. We will see.
And that’s the story and the odyssey about the names StockholmCpp and SwedenCpp and SwedenCpp::Stockholm.
SwedenCpp still exists and is more active than ever before, but is no longer tied to one city only. And the C++ user group in Stockholm is called StockholmCpp, or, if you like, SwedenCpp::Stockholm.
Simple, isn’t it ;-)