RE: Can software have human attributes? meets: You Don't Need to Know How AND Why You NEED to be technical - BUT WHEN YOU'RE NOT!

[Berk/Devlin <armadill -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

On Thu, 26 Jul 2001 14:53:11 -0500, "Dan Hall" <dhall -at- san-carlos -dot- rms -dot- slb -dot- com> averred:
>... Saying that a program (or device) is "sitting and waiting" isn't accurate, because that's not actually what is happening. It's fuzzy-headedness (IMNSHO) and should be avoided.

I agree that "sitting and waiting" is fuzzy, long-winded and inaccurate.  So, I thought Dan was going to go on to say something like, "because neither programs nor devices have laps."  But, he instead continued:

>The program is polling (input devices, network connection, whatever) or
>counting to determine when to execute the next command. It is also quite
>probably performing other tasks in the background while "waiting" for input.
>When a program actually stops doing these things (polling, counting,
>calculating), you get a "stopped responding" error, or the BSOD.

And, here's where I disagree.  And, more to the point, the SME disagreed.  Because, actually, from the developer's viewpoint, the program IS waiting.  

The operating system might be the component that does the polling, counting, calculating and will wake the program up (yes, that is what it's called) when it's time for the program to stop waiting.  

Or, it might not be the operating system that does these things.  There might be a hardware interrupt that gets set by the wait() instruction that wakes the program up.  

The tech writer describing this software does NOT want to get into this level of detail because:

1.  It is way more detail than nearly any software user needs to know AND 
2.  Because details like these are the first to change when programs are ported to new platforms AND
3.  Because the SMEs probably don't even know what is happening while the program waits.  What they DO know is that it DOES WAIT.

In this case, I guess I'm finding myself in Andrew Plato's camp (gasp!!!)  You really do have to understand enough about the way a computer program works to know that it CAN INDEED WAIT but it CANNOT SIT (for the pre-AI time-being, at least).  

So, I'd say that the rule should not be "Do not anthropomorphize."  It should instead be:  "Do not claim that the software/device can do things it cannot do."   And, then, oh, tech writers, it's up to YOU to determine what it truly does and cannot do.  

So, to apply my rule:  In this case, I would feel entirely comfortable writing "The program waits."  I am nearly as certain that:

The program does not sit anywhere;
and
The program RESIDES in RAM; (anthropomorphic, ain't it?)
and
The program is INSTALLED (yes, that's passive; sue me) on a hard drive; 
and 
The program RUNS on a processor.  (So, how can it run if it doesn't have legs?)

--Emily, who will now go and split the hairs of all the angels who sit and wait on the head of a pin 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~                            Emily Berk                                 ~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc.      ~ 
~             Project management, developer relations and               ~
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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