TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
No, no, I meant "has," construing those two items as one unit. As
in, for instance, "name and address" or "peanut butter and jelly."
(Sentence fragment intentional)
Well, "software environment" was too general a term for this list.
I'd cross-posted to a copyediting list, and was working quickly. The
book I'm reviewing orients developers to the use of an integrated
development environment, and, yes, the roundtrips (to go with that
usage) are generally to a database. I believe it comes up in other
contexts as well.
But regardless of whether the roundtrip (round trip, round-trip) is
through space or time, whether it is literal or figurative, I think
my only point about style and usage is that it does vary to some
extent across environments. Certain conventions of punctuation, for
instance, are entirely acceptable in one environment and banned in
another. I think what's applicable with respect to this term
(roundtrip) is that in the environment within which I work, within
which presumably we all work, the tendency is rather to the newer
forms of words than the older. I like to balance this by not staying
too long with the older forms (as when, for example, "data base" was
two words or "word-processing" was hyphenated), but not jumping too
soon to the newer ones ("username" still seems odd to me outside of
code). But I think the term itself, roundtrip, is well accepted.
You don't? It's the spelling of it that varies so.
When it comes to the color of words, I try to maintain language
familiar to the developer, without having it devolve into the sort of
cavalier banter heard in the hallways or bandied about in email and
IMs. That language is great for blogs, not so good for developer
guides.
Odile
At 9:01 PM +1000 6/24/08, Michael West wrote:
> >
> > Style and usage has some relationship to context.
> >
>
>"Have" you mean. Yes, of course they have, but your query did not
>specify what you meant by "a software environment" nor what sense of
>the term "round trip" you were referring to. As far as I know, "a
>software environment" could be almost anything.
>
>It is clear from the examples you submitted subsequently that you
>are dealing with a bit of database jargon rather than the generally
>understood sense of the term. You're not writing about human travel,
>so you can disregard any usage guidelines that refer to the original
>meaning of the term. They aren't meant to apply to specialised
>jargon.
>
>-- `
>Mike West
>Melbourne, Australia
>
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
