The present and the future of package registration

Maybe I’m the ultra-liberal in the room, but for the life of me I can’t understand why there should be limits on how I name my package, or how I document, or test my package? As long as I’m not doing anything offensive, I should be allowed to register it - and the Julia users can decide if they want to use it or not.

The very basic argument is that registration checks are practically useless:

  • the entire codebase can be changed after the registration
  • useless tests can be easily added

In addition, it can lead to subjective decisions. As in the case of “generic” names - when is a package generic enough to be allowed a generic name?

Finally, naming a package is also a branding decision, and frankly, these descriptive name guidelines are boring as hell.


Edit 1: please don’t take the discussion in the direction of the usefulness of tests and documentation, I fully agree on their value.