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 these 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 2017 and started GbpCpp, 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, what was important for me to find event sponsors. So I postponed the decision for the renaming.

Malmö

Begin 2018 Malmö got also C++ user group. The Malmö C++ User Group.

I was very exited 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 made it also very clear to me that the name SwedenCpp can not 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 that 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.

logoSthlm

From August on I started to use the new names at our meetups. I started to introduce the names SwedenCpp::Stockholm for a soft migration and StockholmCpp as a new name that becomes from meetup to meetup more visible.

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 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 public 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 not 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 ;-)