Does Anyone Know Noddy?

Not too long after the folks at the Symbian Foundation announced the release of the complete Symbian Platform codebase (or at least the parts that weren’t already open), I performed some of the searches that I typically perform on a newly-opened large codebase.

Some of the criteria that I searched for included:

• References to suppliers and competing organisations (e.g. Sony Ericsson, NTT DoCoMo, Apple and Microsoft)
• References to previous names of organisations (e.g. Psion and Symbian Software Ltd.)
• References to project/product internal/code-names (e.g. UIKON, AVKON, Crystal and Quartz)
• References to cancelled or previous project/product names, especially within a given context (e.g. “EPOC is“- which will locate a prehistoric marketing document extolling the virtues of the old EPOC32 platform that is a progenitor of the current Symbian Platform)
• References to projects/products that are related to, or derived from the codebase in some way (e.g. MOAP(S), Series 80 and UIQ)
• The terms “confidential” and/or “proprietary” in various combinations

…and just for kicks – profanity and intra-cultural references.

Which leads on to a little mystery:

Just what is the significance of the Noddy references? (Most of which are enshrined in MIME test case sample files, and are made by folks with a connection to Psion).

According to a friend/contact at the Foundation, “Noddy wasn’t originally a cartoon character” – which makes sense, if a cursory glance at a Wikipedia disambiguation page; and passing familiarity with plush nodding dog ornaments in car windows is anything to go by.

Still, that doesn’t really explain who or what Noddy is in this context; or why Noddy was seemingly disliked by the folks involved in compiling the aforementioned test case files.