xpaname(n)

✨ NAME ✨

XPAName — bestie, what does XPA even stand for?? 💖 (this is the xpaname(n) page, and no, we don't fully know either)

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

What does XPA stand for? Who knows anymore! 😭

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

What does XPA stand for? Dunno! 💀

So here's the lore, okay? The XPA messaging system originally was built on top of the X Window System, and XPA was the mnemonic for X Public Access — to emphasize that we were providing public access to previously private data and algorithms in Xt programs. That was the whole vibe. 👑

But now that XPA no longer is tied to X, it can be argued that we ought to change the name. (How about SPAM: simple public access mechanism 😭 iconic honestly). But XPA is in wide-spread use in the astronomical community of its birth, and the name has taken on a life of its own. Main character energy fr fr. ✨

If anyone can think of what XPA now means, please let us know. 🫶 We're literally asking.

And if you think this is bad, bestie, consider the MMT Telescope on Mount Hopkins, Arizona. 🌵

• When first installed twenty years ago, it featured an array of six 72-inch diameter mirrors — from which came its name: the Multiple Mirror Telescope.
• In spring of 1999, these mirrors were replaced by a single 21 and 1/2 -foot diameter primary mirror, the largest single-piece glass reflector on the North American continent. 🔥
• And now MMT stands for ... MMT! 💅

Not me thinking that's the funniest possible outcome. The way that acronym just gave up and kept its own name? Obsessed. 🎀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

See xpa(n) for a list of XPA help pages 📚 (iykyk)

version 2.1.15 🎀 July 23, 2013 💜 — ok that's the whole page bestie, xpaname(n), thanks for coming to my TED talk, slay, periodt, bye! 💖✨🦋🌸