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<document id="cactusname">

  <properties>
    <title>Why the name?</title>
  </properties>

  <body>

    <section title="Why Cactus?">

      <p>
        Here are some stories and reasons about the 'Cactus' name:)
      </p>
      <ul>
        <li>
          It's a cool name ... Short, easy to pronounce, same meanings in all
          spoken languages, has some punch ...
        </li>
        <li>
          There is a famous french song by Jacques Dutronc about cacti that
          goes "le monde entier est un cactus ..." (the whole world is a
          Cactus). The lyrics is available
          <link href="ext:cactus_dutronc_lyrics">here
          </link> and the music (midi format)
          <link href="ext:cactus_dutronc_midi">here
          </link>. It is a
          song that says that cacti are everywhere and that everything is
          a cactus. I like that ! :) ...
        </li>
        <li>
          The J2EEUnit name (which was the previous name of Cactus) was fine
          but there was a Sun trademark on the J2EE part of the name ...
        </li>
        <li>
          Cactus is actually an acronym ... ha ha .. for Computer Assisted
          Construction of Test Units for the Server, or Cool and Comprehensive
          Test Units for the Server, or ... (please send your suggestions to
          the <link href="site:mailinglist">Cactus mailing list</link>).
        </li>
        <li>
          The company for which I worked (
          <link href="ext:octo">OCTO Technology</link>) had organized a diner 
          to celebrate our 3 years of existence. I was looking for a new name 
          for J2EEUnit. I asked some workmates to help me look for a name. We 
          tried to find a name which had something to do with the Apache name. 
          We thought of indians of course ... we tried several names and then 
          Dominique said "Cactus" (you know, indians, the desert, cacti. 
          That's one cliche of indians we have here in France !). I immediatly 
          liked it ...
        </li>
        <li>
          The Cactus name has a rich visual iconography associated with it. So
          it should be possible to find a nice and funny logo (I'm still
          looking for the perfect logo ... If you have propositions, you can
          send them to the <link href="site:mailinglist">Cactus mailing list
          </link> (there is currently a <link href="site:logos">logo contest
          </link> going on ! Try defeating the current logo if you think you
          can do better !).
        </li>
        <li>
          A Cactus is full of spines. Visually you can imagine that a piece of
          code that has gone through this rigourous and comprehensive testing
          has had all its bug revealed ! ...
        </li>
        <li>
          We can imagine a motto like "Tested on Apache-Cactus" !
        </li>
        <li>
          In Australia it is a widely used phrase that refers to something 
          that it not functioning correctly. So the name 'Cactus' is a very 
          appropriate name for a testing tool. See 
          the <link href="ext:australian_slang">Australian Slang</link> page.
        </li>
        <li>
          Any more...?
        </li>
      </ul>

      <p>
        <br/>
      </p>
      <p>
        -Vincent Massol
      </p>

    </section>

  </body>
</document>