How did ViC* get its name?

Mike Quinn suggested the top-down approach: take a name you like, and figure out how to make it fit.

Good idea, Mike. We followed the example of Jamie Frankel. Jamie was managing the group at Thinking Machines developing a C* compiler, and Jamie's boat was named the Sea Star. This transportation motif was intriguing.

In 1990, I got a Toyota 4Runner that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts assigned the license plate 173-VIC to. We referred to the vehicle by the name "Vic." Vic rips. Upon moving to the Granite State in 1992, we decided that in recognition of meritorious service in Boston traffic, Vic deserved his own license plate. Here's Vic in my driveway (with the late afternoon sun catching my neighbor Dino's birches in the background).

It was then simply a matter of associating the name "Vic" to the project. And that was easy: Virtual-memory C*.

We no longer own Vic. The sad part is that whoever has bought Vic is completely unaware of his Vicness.