An IRC Currency Bot’s Download Tool Outgrew Two Names and Became curl
FTP support turned HttpGet into urlget, then uploads made that name too narrow and curl arrived in March 1998.
A currency bot needed exchange rates. Its download utility eventually needed a name that would stop arguing with its feature list.
The project history places Daniel Stenberg’s bot on an Amiga connected to EFnet in late 1996. For fetching rates, he found HttpGet, which Rafael Sagula had released on November 11 that year. Stenberg extended the existing program and became its maintainer.
FTP downloads pushed the tool beyond HTTP. It became urlget 2.0 in August 1997. FTP uploads followed in November, and HTTP POST support arrived too. A program that could send data was becoming awkward to describe as a getter.
The history’s verdict is wonderfully administrative: the “name was once again misleading.” curl 4 arrived on March 20, 1998, keeping the version count from its predecessors.
There was no requirement for the currency bot to survive in order for its useful download machinery to keep finding work. The next consumer could ask for a URL without caring what was happening in the chat channel.
The next hobby script worth watching may have a similarly boring helper hiding inside it. The helper can outgrow the hobby before anybody thinks to rename it.