thoughts about the project name

[jgirardet]

Hi,
Thanks for this very complete project.

I'like many many things with slate-plugins but not the name. It's maybe too late to talk about it but after all 1.0 is not yet here.

• slate-plugins : is to restrictive about what is done here. Yes the core is a plugin sytem for Slate, but considering all features included, it makes it lot more than a plugin system for slate. It's a complete modularized editor based en Slate.

• I think this difference should be considered.

• adding plugins to any name, always makes it lower. An own name make the project more serious. Even in opensource, marketing should be a bit considered.

• slate and plugins are very too common words which makes it hard to search on search engine. (and I think it's the biggest issue)

• (please don't read this line) I like funny names but it's my own taste

• To not only speak, I propose EdiSlate : quite unknown on google, easy to say and to remember.

regards

Jimmy

[zbeyens]

I was thinking about that one day but the naming lost me, thanks for reopening this discussion. Renaming is acceptable before 1.0

Examples

Let's analyze ckeditor and tiptap

The brand name is generally the org name.

tiptap

• org: @tiptap
• core: @tiptap/core
• plugin x: @tiptap/extension-x
• starter kit: @tiptap/starter-kit - "the most common extensions to get started quickly"

They add an "extension-" (aka plugin) prefix as they have packages for lower-level editor logic (a bit like slate-react, slate-vue), which is not our case.

ckeditor

• org: @ckeditor
• core: @ckeditor/ckeditor5-core
• plugin x: @ckeditor/ckeditor5-x
• starter kit: they bundle some plugins like elements or styles but not more. They focus more on "editor" bundles which is not yet our scope.

They separate major versions into separate packages, which is not our case, so we can omit "ckeditor5-"

Current

slate-plugins

• org: @udecode
• plugin x: @udecode/slate-plugin-x
• starter kit: @udecode/slate-plugins

There are the problems you listed.

Next

Brand name

If we choose another brand name then it should be more related to slate like your edislate proposition.

But it would need to rebrand both udecode org and slate-plugins packages, which is a bit too much? ​

People may think what is udecode? a brand on top of unrelated libraries? This is very similar to https://tanstack.com/ and https://react-query.tanstack.com/

• if yes, then we need to set the library brand as a prefix, currently "slate-plugins"
• if no, then udecode is this library brand and we can remove "slate-plugins" prefix

Udecode sounds like "You decode" ... "the complexity of building an editor using this plugin system" 😏 it's not slate related though.

The docs domain would be udecode.io instead of slate-plugins.udecode.io

Core package

It would be @udecode/core

All-in-one / starter kit package

What would be the name of the "starter-kit"? it's currently @udecode/slate-plugins which bundles all the packages. The idea is to have only one tree-shakeable dependency for people who want to focus on development before optimizing the build time. But what if we propose multiple plugins/ui for the same feature?

Downsides

• Most people have installed @udecode/slate-plugins, so they'll need to manually migrate to the new package which will be the v1.0 release.
• "udecode" gets the benefit of a brand but is not intuitively related to "slate", "react", "editor".

[samhatoum]

I don't think org name needs to change, unless in a future date this project gets merged into the main slate package it's fine for it to be anything in my opinion.

As for names, I have brainstormed some ideas to kick-start the creative process:

Some that include slate are:

• slate+ / slate-plus
• slate-master
• slate-pro
• super-slate
• slater (one that slates!)
• slate-pack
• slate-author
• slate-meta / slate-morph (since slate is a metamorphic rock)

And some that are related to slate are:

• scroll
• author
• authority
• metamorphic / morphic
• clay (slate comes from clay)

My personal preference from the list above is slate-pro, since it's what you need for pro projects. This is why we use it.

[zbeyens]

Thanks for the propositions.

• I would prefer one word to avoid long package names
• I like slater but it's a popular name so we lose google indexing
• slate comes from clay indeed but slate doesn't come from slate-plugins (it's the opposite)

[zbeyens]

What do you think about "plate"?

Pros:

• one letter difference from slate
• 2 first letters of "plugins"

May refer to "food plate":

• put food on the plate - put plugins on the plate (core)
• there is even "slate plate" sold on the market

May refer to "plate tectonics" which are dividing the earth like an editor divided by plugins

Cons:

• domain name and github/npm org are not available (but OK to keep udecode)
  • package name would be @udecode/plate-core, @udecode/plate-paragraph, etc.
• popular word, so google indexing will be bad (but OK as slate has the same problem)

Bonus: an empty plate "looks like" an empty editor

[jgirardet]

there is also https://github.com/chrisdickinson/plate (Plate is a Django Template Language implementation in Javascript.)

[samhatoum]

Historically slate has been used for chalkboards, student writing slates, billiard tables, cemetery markers, whetstones, and table tops.

So yet another idea is chalkboard or blackboard. Both are blank canvases like a plate, with the bonus that they are made fr slate.

I'm just throwing ideas out there btw. Feel free to kill them, the good ones are the ones left standing :)

[jgirardet]

About the migration for actual users, maybe we could publish a new dummy version, adding only a DeprecationWarning telling that name has changed for the next release.

I had another idea about the name : ETALS

• it's SLATE reversed.
• It's the french word fro stalls. (lowercase should have an accent étals but whou cares ?)
• It could make sense presenting Etals like market stalls where you pick up things of your choice. Here you would pickup plugins of you choice around a core.
• Etals or Etals js would be easy to search

If we don't want to rename slate-plugins, Etals (or any other name) could be the the storefront of state-plugins. A starter kit with all(many ?) plugins included (something like the playground). It would give a ready to use package. For more specific use, users could use slate-plugins as before.

[dylans]

There are many ways to try to come up with a good name but no perfect answer. Essentially names are memorable when they very literally describe the thing they do (e.g. core.js, require.js, typescript) or when they are memorable because the word is easy to say/spell/remember (Babel, React, Dojo, Vue, Slate).

I think it would be a mistake to not have slate in the name, because most people will find this package because they're looking to extend slate. The most obvious literal names to me are:

• slate-plugins
• slate-extensions
• slate-x
• slater
• slate-more

If you want a more unique identity for the project, I would again focus on something easy to remember, say, and spell. The challenge is that common words are difficult for finding via search and also likely have 5-10 other npm packages with that name already.

Splatter comes to mind (SpLATtEr), letters of slate, p for plugins, t for templates, r for rendering or something? But I would go with slate-splatter in this case or something. Or slate-plate or slate-udecode or whatever.

Also remember that ckeditor originally had an extra letter at the start of the name, a reflection of what a pain RTE in the browser can be to perfect.

[samhatoum]

+1 for a slate-<something> name, otherwise it would be confusing and might come across as a different editor altogether to newcomers.

[samhatoum]

Some more literal(ish) ones to add are:

• slate-scaffold
• slate-base
• slate-foundation
• slate-kit
• slate-stack
• slate-frame
• slate-trunk
• slate-root (I am slate-root!)
• slate-skeleton

I think I'll stop now 😁

[dylans]

Made me laugh... something about picking names turns everyone delirious after a while. :) You did miss one that rhymes though 😂:

• slate-create

[samhatoum]

Haha! So true.

That's actually my new favorite. Similar to react-create-app, but also means to create in the abstract. Like it

[zbeyens]

If we're keeping the "slate-" prefix, a rebrand is not that much needed as "slate-plugins" completes the requirement (though I'm also a fan of "slate-create").

etals idea is nice but is a bit weird to pronounce

slater/splatter and plate are my favorite ones, but

• slater is a no-go for google indexing
• splatter is a bit too long and not so close to slate

plate:

• plate is the closest to slate, I already see people saying "I'm using slate (with) plate", also we keep the SP abbreviation "SP = Slate + Plate = Slate Plugins"
• main drawback is that there is a few github projects named "plate" but they're very old and not famous, so this repo can win the indexing. Note that there is tons of big projects named slate, especially this one.
• reviewed and approved by my wife 😄

[dax70]

What about Slate+ (Slate-Plus)? It could benefit from all the Slate branding, searching, etc while communicating the additional value (batteries included). Slate Pro is nice, just brings up a paid version vs a superset IMO.

[horacioh]

I love all the ideas and the discussion around changing the name of the project!

Personally I don't have a strong opinion on either keep the name or changing it, dunno how much value this would bring (or took away from the main work)

Maybe an idea to get more name ideas, would be if people can share how this project has helped them with their projects, maybe there are some ideas there and we can choose a name more accurate to what will be the real benefit to developers when using this rather than the obvious "plugins" or "utils" stuff?

anyway, just wanted to leave my two cents here! thanks everyone who's contributing!!

[Hideman85]

I think I like the brand name as "You Decode" and so at the end it could not be limited to slate lib but other complex framework toolkit.

For the package name what about "slate-editor"? at the end slate remains a "framework" for an editor and what provide this repo is a lot closer to a complete editor (even multi editor) out of the box.
Look at <SlatePlugins /> it could be easily become <SlateEditor /> with every plugins and the default config by default in a way that for the beginning you can just replace your <textarea onChange={} value={} /> to <SlateEditor onChange={} value={} /> and tada you have a rich text input instead of a native text box.

What do you think?