Re: Article in front of hardware or software

[SB <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com>]

OK, so assume that an IP product is called IPR, should we refer to "setup
the IPR" or setup "IPR".
It was my feeling that even though this is its name, it is still hardware
and should perhaps be called the IPR?
Same with software applications, what do you say setup VUM or setup the VUM
to do XYZ?

On 6/13/08, Andrew Warren <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com> wrote:
>
> SB wrote:
>
> > It was always my impression that when referring to a product XYZ in a
> > sentence, you use the article "the".  Configure *the* XYZ Switch as
> > follows...
> >
> > However, with software, you omit it. For example: Use Microsoft Word
> to
> > author your documentation. Then again, you could say use the XYZ
> Switch
> > application...
> >
> > Is there a grammatical rule for this?
>
> Um, this isn't a hardware/software difference... What you're seeing is
> the difference between proper nouns and nouns -- proper or common --
> used as adjectives.
>
> Proper nouns:
>
>    Microsoft Word
>    Google
>    Mount Rushmore
>    Sylvia
>
> Nouns used as adjectives:
>
>    The XYZ Switch
>    The power cable
>    The Washington Monument
>    The Microsoft Word application
>
> -Andrew
>
> === Andrew Warren  - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
> === Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA
>
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