Re: Word choice (was: Display or appear (Was: Can "either" be used ... ))
Jennifer Carey wrote: << keep in mind *who* the inventors of much of today's
"standard" terminology were (and then tell *me* who they were). "Standard"
doesn't always mean "clear", "understandable" or "specific". -- Sometimes
"standard" is *so* standard that its meaning is transparent (take "mouse"
for example), sometimes it even makes sense, other times, I swear it was
pulled out of somebody's--um--head, to sound official, important and/or
technical.>>
Jane Carnall said:
<snip>
I have this problem every time I move into a new field. All around me the
SMEs are using their own jargon. Some of it will become (or possibly already
is) the new standard language for talking about their subject matter.
Sometimes translating what the SMEs are saying into standard English is the
way to go. Sometimes that would introduce an element of violent confusion (I
had a PHB once who would NOT believe that radio buttons really were called
radio buttons: she insisted that whenever I referred to radio buttons in the
Help file, I should translate it as "multiple options from which you must
select only one" (or something like that, I can't remember)). Sometimes the
SMEs are using an internal company-specific jargon based on the standard
language, and you have to figure it out. And once or twice in every project
there shows up a new concept that has to have a name because there isn't one
yet. (Or worse, there is, and it's 'orrible.)
I try to use display with an object. "The snigglefritz displays complete jibberish in the response window."
If something appears, it is usually and observation, or it is caused by some other action by the program.
I try to remember that I am the SME on language. I had a CEO who edited a newsletter I was producing, and he change "piqued" to peaked. He thought I misspelled it. Which piqued my interest in his education and why he was the CEO.
Scott
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