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> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-42532 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of
> JWood -at- ixl -dot- com
>
> Hi, I am a list reader who is interested in hearing opinions on a rather
> picky but relevant (I think) word differentiation issue -
> what's the difference, technically speaking, between a 'table' and a
> 'matrix'? I have a colleague who likes to refer to everything put into
> tabled format as a 'matrix'. I, on the other hand, prefer to
> call a table a
> table.
Perhaps your coworker prefers the term matrix, but virtually everyone else
in the English-speaking world knows this sort of thing as a table. The
simple rule here is, call it by the term that people will recognize, not by
an obscure pet preference.
As far as the term matrix referring primarily to things mathematical, I
recently saw that word in the manual for my new digital camera (a Canon
Digital Elph). When describing the photo-stitching function, it says that
you can "stitch" photos in horizontal or vertical rows, or in a matrix, to
form a single image.
I also peeked at my 1844 Walker's dictionary that I keep here at work (I
have other, and sometimes older, dictionaries at home). Matrix is defined
as; "A place where anything is generated or formed; the womb." How things
change....
David Berg
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