Re: Silly but important to me

[Greg Holmes <greg -dot- holmes -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Rose Wilcox wrote:

>The verb form of display has added an intransitive
>forms as per:
>
>Dictionary.com
>Source: The American Heritage(r) Dictionary of
>the English Language,

(snip)

>dis*play    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (d-spl)
>v. dis*played, dis*play*ing, dis*plays
>v. tr.
>
>To present or hold up to view.
...
(snip)

>v. intr.
>Computer Science. To provide information or
>graphics on a screen: a personal computer that
>displays and prints.

Hmm, that addition seems ... wrong, somehow.
There is an *implied* object; the computer isn't
just "displaying", it is displaying windows, and
such.  And printing ... documents, on paper.

A window that wasn't there before, on the other
hand, may be "displaying" data, but that isn't 
really what distinguishes it from it's former 
state of non-existence.  "Appears" just seems
more appropriate to me, somehow.

(cue all the hard-nosed business talk about how
this doesn't matter ... with which I agree, for the
most part)

Greg Holmes

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