Alternative name to reduce confusion

[ariya]

I apologize for reviving an old topic from > 3 years ago (see #10).

After all these years, we (=PhantomJS team) always have the need to explain in many different forms of conversation (Github issue, tweet, email, etc) that this npm-based package is an installer and not the actual PhantomJS itself. We would politely redirect them here to continue their issues with installation, troubleshooting, availability, or other inquiry.

Hence why I argued long time ago (in #10) that this confusion could be reduced by giving this project a different name, e.g. phantomjs-installer, instead of just the vanilla phantomjs. Back then, this thought was driven by my gut-feeling. Now we now that this confusion truly exists due to the repeated explanation we need to give.

In short: I think this project is great, giving easy access to Node.js developers to install PhantomJS. With a minor name tweak, I believe this will reduce confusion for everyone.

Thank you for your consideration!

[bedney]

I concur with this, especially given the fact that the version numbers between the two can differ, which causes yet more confusion still. Even after using the 'npm PhantomJS installer' for 2+ years, I myself have to be overly precise about which I'm talking about when talking with others: the core PhantomJS or the npm installer.

Having said that, let me also offer my thanks to the team here - many people use this package as an easy way to install PhantomJS.

[nicks]

@ariya is phantomjs-prebuilt ok by you?

i'm skeptical -- my impression is that the confusion is less about the name, and more about the (incorrect) assumption that phantomjs-team controls and provides support for all phantomjs distribution channels.

but i'm fine with deprecating phantomjs and pointing people to phantomjs-prebuilt. worst-case it creates a lot of busy-work for people downstream who have to update their package references. We can always undeprecate if there's a revolt.

[ariya]

@nicks Your skepticism might be right, I just think that having the exact same name does not cause people to pause and think, and hence their assumption will not be corrected (ever).

I'm fine with any name, pick something that suits you well.

[bedney]

Might I suggest node-phantomjs? It would be in keeping with how many other npm packages are named.

OTOH - this really isn't a NodeJS package per se...

Anyway, feel free to ignore this comment from the peanut gallery and thanks again to both of you guys for your work on these projects! 😄

[ariya]

Here is an interesting data point: since I filed this issue 11 hours, there have been two install problems that this project probably should be aware of:

• Release of PhantomJS 2.1 ariya/phantomjs#12970 (comment)
• PhantomJS 2.1.1 downloading, frequent 429 Too Many Requests errors ariya/phantomjs#13951

[nicks]

i don't think ariya/phantomjs#12970 (comment) is referring to this package. we have never tried to install phantomjs 2.0.0. (i.e., people are complaining to you about lots of npm installer packages, not just this one)

[ariya]

@nicks I'm not implying that the report is valid. I just don't have enough information to immediately verify the claim (without going to this project, check that it never deals with 2.0.0, and so on).

[nicks]

@ariya We've agreed to change the name. Are you looking for some additional action?

There are many NPM phantomjs installers with many names. Bugs in them get reported to your repo. Bugs in them get reported to our repo. Not sure if that makes you feel any better. Users are crazy!

[ariya]

@nicks Thanks for your consideration and feel free to resolve this issue once an npm package with the new name is published.

[nicks]

https://www.npmjs.com/package/phantomjs shows a deprecation notice !

long live https://www.npmjs.com/package/phantomjs-prebuilt !!

[ariya]

👍

[bedney]

Thank You 😃

[just-boris]

As I understand, there is no need to rename package on NPM.
The issue here that top packages have the same name: https://github.com/search?utf8=✓&q=phantomjs
The same thing with google search results.
People probably are confused and can get to the wrong project.

Rename project in NPM doesn't solve that issue at all because nothing changed in Github.

[jakub-g]

Agreed with the last comment of @just-boris, probably you could also consider renaming the GitHub repo.

FYI when you rename a repo on GitHub, then GitHub will put a permanent HTTP-URL and git-URL redirections from old name to the name name, so all the bookmarks / links / git remotes people have will continue to work. So, it's pretty safe to change repo name on GitHub without any unwanted side-effects.