A Roman Name for Software

The article contrasts the Roman Senate’s debate over the Catiline conspirators—where Cato’s insistence on proper naming highlighted the Republic’s fragility—with modern software engineering, where imprecise terminology erodes system integrity. It argues that business software should emulate the taxonomist’s goal of faithfully naming and classifying real-world entities, a practice that fell out of favor after the expert-systems craze and was later distorted by Java’s object-orientation craze. The piece warns that both external market pressures and internal pride can corrupt naming conventions, undermining logical systems and intellectual rigor.