Re: Incremental find?

[arroxaneullman -at- aol -dot- com]

Andrew,

Mozilla may use it, but "find-as-you-type" is not the most common term; nor is it the first name Mozilla called the feature: www.mozilla.org/access/type-ahead/

As for technical versus explanatory terms, if you had never seen a toilet and I decided to call it "flush-bodily-waste-out-a-pipe device" you might understand the idea, but it's name is still "toilet." In other words, the commonly accepted name is more important than a descriptive name.

Thanks for your perspective.

:)
Arroxane


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Warren <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>
To: arroxaneullman -at- aol -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Wed, 14 May 2008 2:42 pm
Subject: RE: Incremental find?










arroxaneullman -at- aol -dot- com wrote:

> One of our developers is using the term "find-as-you-type function"
> which I'm certain is not the proper name of the tool.

    Why not?  It's the name that Mozilla uses.

> Wikipedia says the proper term is "incremental find." .... what's
> the best term to use? The one that is descriptive but wordy and
> informal, or the term that is technical but unclear?

    I can't imagine an audience for whom "technical" (whatever that
    means) would trump "descriptive and clear".  I mean, what if
    you could find another term that was even MORE technical, but
    which not a single one of your readers would understand?  Would
    you consider using that term?

    If you use "incremental find", you'll have to explain what it
    means... And your explanation will probably include the phrase
    "find as you type".  Why not just call it "find-as-you-type"
    and be done?

    -Andrew

=== Andrew Warren  - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA



 

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