Re: increment & decrement

Subject: Re: increment & decrement
From: Judy Glick-Smith <glick -at- NS1 -dot- UNICOMP -dot- NET>
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 1994 14:01:46 -0500

On Fri, 23 Sep 1994, Chuck Martin wrote:

> While I agree with posters about the *use* of the words--I used them
> as verbs in my computer classes--My Dictionary of Computing lists them
> only as nouns.

> Hmmm.... When we *say* increment and decrement, do we *mean* increase
> and decrease?

> Chuck Martin
> Information Developer, IBM
> techwriter -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
> techwriter -at- aol -dot- com
> 74170,2462 -at- compuserve -dot- com

Chuck, et al:

I learned to use the words increment and decrement when I was a
programmer. I still use those words when I develop systems and
programming documentation for programmers and systems analysts. Increment
and decrement are measured increases and decreases. You could write
"increase the counter by 1." However, the programmer puts special
meaning on the words "increment the counter by 1." It all comes back to
"Know thy audience" and how they talk to each other. When you write for
programmers, use the words they use; when you write for end-users, use the
words your ennd-users use.

Judy Glick-Smith
Integrated Documentation, Inc.


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