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We took "OpenGL Successor" out of the title. That language doesn't appear on the page.

Submitters: the HN guidelines ask you to use the original title except when it is misleading or linkbait. Please don't add editorial interpretation—it's against the spirit of the site and often turns the discussion into a nitpicky debate about what you did to the title. In this case, the post has no obvious single title, but the subtitle "Vulkan Is Here" works fine.




FWIW, I looked at the (current) title, read the page, and thought "Oh, right, this is the OpenGL successor, finally released. Why is that not in the title? It's important context for other readers."

The Wikipedia article on OpenGL lists Vulkan as the successor, and the former name for the Vulkan project was "Next Generation OpenGL Initiative" (glNext).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenGL#Successor


"OpenGL successor" was the headline everywhere when it was announced last year [1][2]. Personally, I see nothing wrong with including it in the title, even if it's not 100% intended to be the successor, it helps provide context to people unfamiliar with the software/industry. Almost all pitch deck guides recommend using similar analogies and it's probably the only reason this is #1 on HN.

[1] "Khronos announces openGL successor Vulkan" http://www.infoworld.com/article/2892236/khronos-announces-o...

[2] "The successor to OpenGL has a name: Vulkan" http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/237907/The_successor_to_O...


There are reasons why they named it Vulkan rather than OpenGL 5. Though, as far as I can tell, the reasons were mostly political.

It reminds me of Nintendo releasing the Nintendo DS and calling it their 'third pillar', standing alongside their home console and Gameboy lines. They made it quite clear that despite its similar market position, the Nintendo DS was not the next Gameboy and it was not replacing the Gameboy line. Of course, the DS was incredibly successful and they never made any new Gameboy-branded handhelds ever again. (Though they did do a few updates to the existing model.)

The Nintendo DS was a Gameboy that they didn't want to call a Gameboy, and so when it succeeded the brand simply changed and things continued on as usual.

I suspect that we may see the same with Vulkan. When anyone can design an OpenGL-like abstraction as a library on top of Vulkan, the desire to make big updates to OpenGL will fade.


Titles on HN are like acupuncture needles: you want them to go in without a reaction. Actually, I just made that up about acupuncture, but I'm sure it's true about titles. There's no more reliable effect on HN than the dreaded title fever.

Even here, the discussion of how Vulkan relates to OpenGL would be better if not hung up on the word "successor", and would naturally have come up in the thread.




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