Periodic Table does not have an element starting with "J" or "Q" or "W"

[styfle]

All LTS releases will be assigned a "codename" drawn from the names of elements on the Periodic Table of Elements. For each upcoming LTS release, the Release working group will select a handful of candidate names and submit those for a collaborator vote.

I looked up the List of chemical elements and noticed there are no elements starting with "J" or "Q" or "W".

I realize that we won't hit "J" for 7 more LTS releases but I'm curious...how will the "codename" be decided in those 3 cases?

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UPDATE: looks like I'm not the first to notice this problem.
Maybe other languages could solve it.

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UPDATE 2023: "J" is officially "Jod". Let's move on to discussing "Q".

[addaleax]

It’s not exactly an answer to this question, but you may want to take a look at what we’re discussing for Node 10.x/the letter D (#291).

(I guess the real answer is “we don’t know”.)

[mhdawson]

I think we can just skip those letters.

[MylesBorins]

@mhdawson skipping letters is super confusing and I'm personally not a fan of it

[bnb]

@MylesBorins agreed. I've already had a half dozen people ask me "well, what are you going to do for the letters that don't have a corresponding element" and I don't foresee skipping letters being a simple explanation to them - let alone simple to understand for those that don't ask.

[styfle]

I too think that skipping a letter is not the correct solution. Users who are not aware of the full list of code names (think sysadmin who doesn't use node.js but is tasked with updating it) could get confused. You no longer can rely on the alphabet to know how many LTS releases you are behind the current.

It's like the caveat you'll constantly have to explain:

• Why aren't there 26 LTS releases yet we are changing themes?
• Did I skip an LTS? Where's the release after Iron?

More people have the alphabet memorized than the periodic table of elements memorized. So if no element is discovered by the time we get to J, I say just pick an arbitrary J name that sounds like an element, maybe a molecule 🤷‍♂️

[styfle]

Let's approve #318 and revisit this in 5 years 👍 5️⃣ 🤓

Plus I think J is a lie anyway 😄

[targos]

#318 landed

[styfle]

@targos Let's reopen this issue since #318 didn't solve the original issue and its almost been 5 years (ok, only 3.5 but gotta get the ball rolling 🙂)

We are going to reach "J" in a couple releases and we don't have a codename for it yet.

cc @Trott @drewfish so we can continue the discussion from #318 (comment)

[styfle]

I vote for Jabronium 😆

[jasnell]

My vote is on Jumbonium

[bnb]

+1 to Jumbonium

[devsnek]

Javaium

[richardlau]

Jod which is another name for Iodine in many non-English languages and how it appeared on early period tables.

[ThePrez]

Jermanium

[matthewmayer]

Q should be Quark

[matthewmayer]

Given there are already several chemical elements with names based on planets such as uranium, neptunium, plutonium, a hypothetical chemical element element named after Jupiter would probably be called Jovium.

[BethGriggs]

We should probably do something about this soon for J. Maybe we could create a list of proposed options, and then have a small poll? Poll participants TBD. But, I personally would not object to it being public/end user-facing poll providing Release (or TSC) had no objections to any of the proposed options.

[simon-id]

Since the transfermium elements had some back and forth concerning naming convention, there has been an element called Joliotium in reference to Frédéric Joliot-Curie which is now called something else. that's my suggestion.

[Ethan-Arrowood]

@BethGriggs wdyt about having this discussion / preliminary vote at OpenJS World? I think it could be a fun activity to add to the mix 😄

[bnb]

Poll participants TBD. But, I personally would not object to it being public/end user-facing poll providing Release (or TSC) had no objections to any of the proposed options.

This might be a good use of GitHub Discussions's new Poll feature. Create a Discussions poll with pre-agreed options (probably TSC or collaborators being the ones to choose the options) in nodejs/node and share it as widely as possible.

[MylesBorins]

From: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-letter-is-not-found-in-the-periodic-table-606637#:~:text=The%20letter%20%22J%22%20is%20the,known%20by%20the%20name%20jod.

The letter "J" is the only one not found on the periodic table.

In some countries (e.g., Norway, Poland, Sweden, Serbia, Croatia), the element iodine is known by the name jod.

[BethGriggs]

We reviewed all of the potential names suggested in this issue for "J" in the recent Release WG meeting (#758, 6 attendees) and the outcome was:

• Reviewed the candidate names for “J” and the only option those present in the meeting felt was suitable was “Jod”.

So, a poll is likely not necessary for "J" after all. We agreed to review in the next meeting to allow time for those not present to object (or indicate their support for one of the alternatives). If neither of those happen, we'll PR "Jod" to CODENAMES after the next meeting.

[hashimoto-AJ]

Japanium😁

[styfle]

Unfortunately, Jabronium didn't make the cut 😄

Looks like the PR for Jod was merged last year and I missed it:

• doc: add codename for J #768

Now we get to move on to bikeshedding "Q"...

[styfle]

I'm full of ideas:

• Quartz
• Quark
• Quine
• Quicksilver
• Quinoa
• Quahog

[matthewmayer]

There is only one option for K (Krypton) so you could go ahead and add that for 2025

[ljharb]

also W is the symbol for Tungsten, so that one seems easy

[matthewmayer]

Wungsten

[matthewmayer]

W for Tungsten comes from Wolfram which would be a good name except for the possible confusion with the language/company/scientist

We do have 13 years to ponder this though.