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:Re: Usage of "mapping" From:Gwen Thomas <gthomas -at- PAYSYS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 28 Jun 1999 13:43:46 -0500
Another software-specific usage of "mapping":
Data on the screen "maps" to the data field wherever it's stored in the application. In this e-mail, the data "Usage of "mapping"" appears in a box labeled Subject. (That's its label in Groupwise, at least. Perhaps other applications apply a different screen label to the data).
We'd probably document it as the Subject field if we were writing user doc. But the data field in whatever table (record, etc.) is holding the data could be named anything in the world, as long as the online field is properly mapped to the data field. A technical person maintaining the application might be more interested in this other name, and would almost certainly appreciate doc that somewhere included mapping of the screen label to the data name.
In the green-screen COBOL world, data is stored in records, and online programs perform online/real-time processing of the data. A separate piece of the application, a map, spells out the location of the data on the screen and the labels and other text that appear on the screen with the data. (Information. Processing. Presentation.) A single piece of data can be presented on multiple screens if multiple programs/maps are created.
Gwen Thomas
Knowledge Management Consultant
CIBER Information Services, Inc.