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.
Subject:Returns vs. retrieves? From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Sat, 12 Dec 1998 04:54:13 -0700
John David Hickey queried <<The GET command returns/retrieves the
value of the variable as a string.>>
The correct verb depends largely on your audience. Although
"retrieves" is semantically correct, "returns" is more correct
programmer-speak. The word originates in the old BASIC
programming construct of "GOSUB" (go to the following subroutine)
and RETURN (i.e., come back from the subroutine with the data I
specified when I wrote the subroutine); it may have even earlier
roots in programming. If Richard Mateosian is monitoring the
thread, he can probably provide details, since he's got a few <g>
more years programming knowledge than I do. For a general audience,
"retrieve" is probably better, but programmers will certainly know
what you mean by "return", and will likely consider "retrieve" odd or
even wrong (e.g., I believe "retrieve" is now a keyword in some
programming languages.)
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
