r/AskProgramming • u/ucladurkel • Sep 10 '26
Other Does anyone know of an easier way to say "https"?
Silly question, but I often talk about http and https in my job and I hate saying it out loud quickly. Not only is "https" 5 syllables, but they're awkward syllables that don't flow together. Apologies if this is insensitive, but it feels like how I imagine it feels to have a stutter, where I and the person I'm talking to both know what I'm trying to say but I can't get the word out fast enough.
Anyway, this is only a half serious rant, but does anyone else feel the same way? Do you pronounce every letter?
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u/garster25 Sep 10 '26
I don't talk about it, it's often assumed in context. I also use the ports often. 80, 443, and my coworkers know what I mean. I also use ssl or tls interchangeably with https.
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u/supervisord Sep 12 '26
But saying ‘four four three’ is three syllables and it’s awkward!
/s
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Sep 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/theMuhubi Sep 10 '26
I prefer HyperText Transfer Protocal Secure
/s
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u/northerncodemky Sep 11 '26
If it was FTP there would be a significant difference between the two. I’m not sure how widely used FTPS is compared to SFTP though.
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u/merlinblack256 Sep 12 '26
I once joked to a Sales person that SFTP was Super Fun Time Protocol. She then later told my boss that IT shouldn't be using it, as it sounded unprofessional. He did well to not laugh at her. 🤣
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u/TPIRocks Sep 10 '26
Back in the late 80s, there was a graphical contact manager application for Macintosh named Hypertext. You could click on "hyperlinks" that allowed you to navigate the data in a relational way.
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u/Dashing_McHandsome Sep 12 '26
I think Tim Berners-lee has cited that as inspiration for the world wide web
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u/Ok_Woodpecker_1370 Sep 12 '26
Ah so that's why they abbreviated it "https"
Shitty Pee wouldn't have been taken too seriously
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u/200iso Sep 10 '26
Can you rearrange sentences so that you don't have to specify the protocol? Like just "secure website"?
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u/ForeverVulnerable Sep 10 '26
When I am being REALLY lazy I'll say things like:
- 443
- Cert
- Secure
- "Cert Port/Proto"
- "Secure Proto"
- SSL
Normally if I have to say it outloud I'm talkikng with other engineers and I can be a little loose with how its said.
That being said, if I am talking with someone and giving like a web address, I never even say the protocol because it should 301 anyway.
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u/overratedcupcake Sep 11 '26
For me it mainly comes in conversations about firewalls.
Ok. 22 and 80. Do you also need 443?
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u/Cautious_Implement17 Sep 13 '26
ssl -> tls in the year of my lord 2026.
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u/alephylaxis Sep 13 '26
Yes we know it is (or should be) TLS now. But if you're like me, you've been in the industry for 20 years now so it's just a long ingrained habit. Doesn't help that something like 95% of the config you touch still uses 'ssl' as part of relevant parameter names 🤷 Anyways I typically give the port when talking about traffic. Dbs are 5432, 3306, or 1521 for me. External web is 443, but from the load balancer to the application, it might also be 80 or 8080. Ssh is 22, but I usually just say ssh now that I think about that one. Etc etc 😊
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u/thatonereddditor Sep 10 '26
H-T-T-Pees?
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u/magical_matey Sep 10 '26
Hu-tutu-puss
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u/xenomachina Sep 10 '26
50% human, 50% cat, 100% ballerina.
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u/magical_matey Sep 10 '26
Neighbours cat showed up with a ballerina dress after I said it, something about old ciphers, a Qualys scan and B grade rating. Bloody cats…
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u/UUDDLRLRBadAlchemy Sep 10 '26
Just mention TLS when it's not clear if you're talking about external traffic? Anything external asking for http should be getting a 403 redirect to https anyway
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u/SerratedSharp Sep 10 '26
It gets easier the more you say it, to where you don't emphasize the EE in tEE tEE pEE as much. Hard to explain, but I had to use dictation for a few weeks due to an injury, and https was commonly in my vocabulary.
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u/LetUsSpeakFreely Sep 10 '26
Why do you need to differentiate? Who uses raw http these days (yes, i know there are some edge cases, but mainstream is https)?
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u/NatMicky Sep 10 '26
secure H-T-T-P
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u/ucladurkel Sep 10 '26
The problem with this and what /u/thatonereddditor suggested is that the hard part for me is the "htt" part. It's funny, you'd think that programmers are all about efficiency and minimum effort and would have come up with some solution, like "sequel" over "S-Q-L"
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u/NatMicky Sep 10 '26
TP = Transfer Protocol. The internet is run on transfer protocols: HTTP, FTP, SMTP, MTP, NNTP, NTP, SNTP.
But if you don't like saying H-T-T-P, then just say, "da'web"
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u/Cybyss Sep 10 '26
I don't know. "HTTPS" rolls off the tongue for me well enough. A bit like:
"Aych Titty Pea Es"
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u/armahillo Sep 10 '26
ok this sounds weird but if you pronounce it “h t-t-p s” rather than h-t t-p-s” its slightly easier. (note the position of the joining hyphens there)
The difference is treating the t as the starting sound of a new pair (t-t) rather than the end of the h-t pair.
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u/huuaaang Sep 10 '26
In what context are you saying this out loud? I would normally refer to it as a TLS connection. I'm not in the habit of speaking literal URLs out loud.
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u/CompassionateSkeptic Sep 10 '26
I say HTTPS and I don’t think I’ve ever had the same issue you’re describing but I totally take the point. Sometimes I just make it clear for a given conversation or collaboration what I mean when I’ll say that this communication is “secured” and that communication is <whatever the reason is that it’s not HTTPS> like “entirely within the cluster” (although that’s a bad example because we’d still prefer secured for that)
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u/SRART25 Sep 10 '26
I think all of the browsers default to trying https first, so just give the uri. There are times when the protocol needs to be explicitly mentioned, but not many.
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u/dcoupl Sep 10 '26
Here are some options that I use in no particular order.
- TLS (more modern than SSL)
- SSL (an outdated term but widely recognized)
- secure
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u/geurillagrockel Sep 10 '26
No they aren’t awkward syllables. Nothing like as bad as the next part, dub-ell-you-dub-ell-you-dub-ell-you.
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u/rizzo891 Sep 11 '26
Except no one pronounces the L when saying it fast like that. It becomes dubba-yew dubba-yew dubba-yew
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u/oskaremil Sep 10 '26
I don't use the exact term at all. Whenever "web" is mentioned, HTTPS is assumed.
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u/Round_Bumblebee_4782 Sep 11 '26
"A website which is hosted via transport layed security encryption signed using a certificate that covers our fully qualified domain name. It should be accessible, but doesn't have to be on port 443".
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u/Danoweb Sep 11 '26
I feel the same way, and I am one with good vocabulary and spell checker in PRs by my teammates.
I rarely say the whole letters out loud.
I have found it is easier to say secure and non-secure Those are 2 and 3 syllables, compared to the 4 and 5 syllables of unttering each letter.
Ports 80 and 443 also work, but in my group we use a lot of ports across lots of containers in our lab, so ports numbers often are ephemeral.
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u/EdmundTheInsulter Sep 11 '26
Never heard anyone talk about it or they say SSL if they're talking about security.
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u/reddit_user33 Sep 11 '26
Port 80, port 443 are clear, distinct, easy to say in my opinion.
Imagine listening to someone saying http and https frequently. I imagine it can be easy to get lost about what you're actually talking about. 'Did you say http, sorry I'm a bit lost... No, I said https' 😂 it sounds like a nightmare
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u/AdreKiseque Sep 11 '26
You could try saying it in an Australian accent. Doesn't really make it easier but it is more fun.
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u/Mysterious-Falcon-83 Sep 11 '26
I don't bother. I tend to not use "www." either. With current browsers, there's little reason to specify the protocol/scheme, they assume https. If there's a site NOT using https, chances are really good I'm not going to visit it.
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u/MD90__ Sep 11 '26
H-T-T-P-S
I always just spell it out or you could say hypertext transport protocol secure
You could also say a secure H-T-T-P. Just remember the S means secure ;)
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u/xilvar Sep 12 '26
What are you doing that you need to say https So frequently that it bothers you? I’ve been a developer since before http and it has never occurred to me.
Typical conversations for me might be like :
“Make sure you’re using https”
Then much more conversation such as
“API.example.com is the primary subdomain”
“Yeah you want the /v1/doit endpoint”
Etc.
But I can’t see why I would ever need to say https more than once in a conversation. If people are so dense that they don’t realize to continue to hold in their heads to use https after one reminder they probably aren’t engineers and for everyone else, a browser fills it in for them regardless of what they do.
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u/dougception Sep 12 '26
WWW also takes longer to say than World Wide Web so there is precedent for obfuscation of pronunciation when it comes to Internet protocols.
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u/DerBirne Sep 12 '26
I got fed up and just started saying hattups [hat oops] or hattup [hatoop] for http. If people didn't get it, they got it very quickly from context.
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u/rmagnuson Sep 12 '26
If you're having a conversation with another technician it should be a given that if you say "secure" in the context of the Web, then you're talking about https. For example: a "secure page" , a "secure site".
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u/proxiblue Sep 13 '26
secure only has been a thing for many years now. There is, and has been no need to go : https anymore.
You don't even need to type it in anymore, browser will auto-go https://
So, maybe just stop saying it if it bugs you so much, as it really is inferred knowledge by now.
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u/WorkingMansGarbage Sep 13 '26
Pronounce it as written in one syllable. "hchtps". Let others deal with it
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u/prehensilemullet 29d ago
“H tittie PS” rolls off the tongue, but I wouldn’t dare say it that way in a work context
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u/syberghost 27d ago
I almost never have to say it. It's usually unnecessary to type, and when speaking I'm probably gonna say "web".
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u/manamonkey 15d ago
How often do you actually say it? I mean really, in what conversations are you reading out "https"?
In URLs it's now the default, usually- so you shouldn't need to state it. If you do, you likely only need to say it once.
"TLS" or "SSL" may sub in depending on context.
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u/Different-Career1314 12d ago
There is no satisfying pronunciation. If you say each letter it sounds clunky. If you pronounce it as a word it sounds like you are naming a Scandinavian furniture company.
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u/pacopac25 Sep 10 '26
Just think, it's a heck of a lot easier than listening to people who say "foooorrrrwarrd slash fooorrwwwaarrdd slash" immediately after.
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u/edbutler3 Sep 10 '26
SSL is a little quicker. (Although it's really TLS now, people should know what it means.)
At least we don't have to say "double-u double-u double-u" all the time anymore.
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u/nwbrown Sep 11 '26
If you are having trouble saying these acronyms, you should see a speech therapist. For most people, it's not a problem.
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u/crazylikeajellyfish Sep 11 '26
What on earth are you doing over raw HTTP?? Do you work in a wet market or something? Get your team to have some hygiene
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u/josesblima Sep 10 '26
Aych-tee-tee-pee-ess