this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
693 points (97.0% liked)

Programmer Humor

22472 readers
1177 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

nginx ("engine x") is an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy server, and mail proxy server. […] [1]

I still pronounce it as "n-jinx" in my head.

References

  1. Title (website): "nginx". Publisher: NGINX. Accessed: 2025-02-26T23:25Z. URI: https://nginx.org/en/.
    • §"nginx". ¶1.
(page 6) 44 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

“Nugginx” is how I have always read it

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

When I first heard someone say SCSI out loud describing the drives in a server, I responded with, "No, they're actually high-end drives."

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (14 children)

There's a linux file called fstab which is often pronounced f-s-tab because it's a table of file systems. It was somewhat surprising to hear Dave Plummer pronounce it as "f-stab", as in stabbing someone...

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It'll forever be F-stab in my head

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Insert dank Winnie the Pooh meme here for F-STAB

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

That's... Unfortunate.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

you mean its not En Gee Nix?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Getting into documentation is dangerous territory.. Try not to make a habit of it!

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago

Who cares? Pronounce it whichever way you want as long as it's clear/understandable. It would take longer for me to understand what piece of software engine-x is, but it takes a second at most.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I always heard it as /ŋiŋks/ in my mind

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ok so I know what ŋ sounds like but I bet there are some idiots here who don’t, so maybe explain it.

For them

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

In relation to English, it's the "ng" sound in the common "-ing" ending or suffix.

Wikipedia has an entire article on it (of course): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_velar_nasal

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

One time I was getting estimates for server software for an embedded device I had made. In a teleconference, I told one company that our prototype server ran on nginx. They emailed us an estimate saying we had to switch our embedded system to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise, and put the server on Microsoft's cloud, because "Engine X is not an enterprise web server."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I will be dead and buried in the ground before I call nginx "engine x"

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

@Kalcifer And
(At least in some LATAM places) SQL is "pronounced" as SEQUEL...

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (14 children)

And postgresql is pronounced post-gres-Q-L, even though it probably should be post-gre-SQL

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

I just pronounce it postgres. That's the original name of the database. It originally had its own query language (quel), and SQL was later retrofitted onto it and called PostgreSQL. But the original quel language is long gone that we may as well go back to calling it just Postgres.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

What’s the difference? Those read the same to me. Do you mean that you want a strong gap between “gre” and the S in S-Q-L?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The first one is post-grez-queue-el, the second one is post-gree-es-queue-el

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The first is the only way that makes sense, the second too easily becomes post-grease-queue-el. Which is horrible.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I will be calling it post-grease from now on.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I just say "post grezz sequel". Sorry if it pisses people off, but it's a stupid name, so I'm gonna say it the way I want.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

It's short enough I just spell it out

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I went for n-ginx too. I've known for a while that it's actually n-gin-x but have to think carefully to not revert back.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 132 points 1 month ago (6 children)

And JSON is pronounced “javascripton“

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Wtf?

It's Jason. If they wanted it pronounced that way, they should've spelled it differently...

Like GIF

Sorry, no, at least one could argue GIF. JSON is a single freakin' vowel short of a common male name.

Morons.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (12 children)

GIF like Geoffrey the giraffe, if you get my gist. Always has been.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

They're joking. js doesn't even officially stand for JavaScript due to Oracle's IP claim over the JavaScript name.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Jason = jay-sun
JSON = jay-sawn

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

JavaScript is actually pronounced with a g.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago

That is the lamest decepticon transformer I’ve ever heard of

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Occasionally i feel myself longing back to the good ol' JSOFF times.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 month ago

Oh my god it's Javascripton Bourne!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Wow, I pronounced it N-G-X. Don't know why.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've been pronouncing it N-gin-X, which is probably close enough once slurred together

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I always called it “in-gen-ix”, which doesn’t even make sense now that I think about it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Wow, I never knew people thought it was pronounced differently. Never even considered it looked like jinx.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Rules of English, the closest I'd come is n-jinx. You don't pronounce letters individually, unless reciting the alphabet or something.

Unless you pronounce the letter "B" the same way you say it, like the bug that makes honey.

We don't say "beenefits" or "bee eee an eee eef eye tee ess"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why would I pronounce something with rules of English that's not an English word? When I say the word jalapeno, I pronounce the tilde on the n even though in English it's neither written with the tilde nor written with a letter combination that would produce that sound through standard English spelling.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

Well you see, this is software so the rules break down here in favor of cool. I guess I just grew up surrounded by naming conventions like that so could easily identify it.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›