Hot answers tagged jargon
56
Ooh! This is my field of expertise. =) Never use "string" to describe a series of characters, in any user interface element. The exception to this rule, is when the user is expected to be a developer (programmer, analyst, power user, etc.). If any, the user interface should use jargon with which the user is expected to be familiar. When using jargon in ...
22
The definition shown in your dictionary is unnecessarily narrow, which has led to your confusion. More broadly, "to reach out" means to initiate contact with someone, with the usual implication that the contact is helpful or beneficial.
For that reason, either the helper or the person requesting help can be said to "reach out" to the other. The only ...
18
I would write “Log in to host.com.”
I think that “login” is a noun (as in “login screen”). I would find the words “loginned” and “loginning” awkward.
As for “Log in to host.com” versus “Log into host.com,” I would use the former because I think that “log in” is a fixed phrase. Martha’s answer to another question is also related.
Added: The Corpus of ...
17
In this interesting history, which is the actual description of the origin of this use from Professor Corbato, he explains that daemon originally had the connotation of "an attendant ... or indwelling spirit" and that
By the late 16th century, the general supernatural meaning was being distinguished with the spelling daemon, while the evil meaning ...
17
Truckers use CB radios to talk to each other during long hauls on the interstate highway system of the United States. Sometimes the chatter is just to pass the time; other times, helpful information is passed between truckers. Truckers have shorthand ways of speaking to each other over the radio, and "10-4" means "Yes, I acknowledge," similar to the way ...
16
I found some infomation on Stackoverflow.
This is particularly useful:
login, logout, logon, and logoff are
nouns or adjectives
log in, log out, log on, log off are
verbs
for developers, this will probably be helpful in deciding which term to use:
Just an observation, but the more
casual the site, the more likely it’s
going to use ...
15
We did some informal research on precisely this for the ConML modelling language, which is aimed at non experts in information technologies. We wanted a "string" data type but we didn't want to sound too techie. Our conclusion was to use Text as a data type name, and from our experience at teaching and using ConML, it is well received and understood.
13
It's called a motherboard because it is the main circuit board in the computer, and it can be extended by plugging other circuit boards into it. These extensions are called daughter boards. Wikipedia suggests that historically a "mainboard" was not extensible in this way, hence the need for different terminology. Many computer terms use human or biological ...
11
// comes from programming and is generally used to denote a comment or explanation that should be ignored by the compiler or computer. Its purpose is to leave notes and instructions for future programmers or anyone else that needs to understand what is happening in code. The literary equivalent is a footnote.
In the examples you provide, the words following ...
11
In computing, wizards were originally expert computer users (people) who could install software or help you with your installation. Later, they were software assistants (programs) to help with initial tasks of setting something up.
Human wizard
A wizard used to be a power-user, a programmer or someone with higher level of expertise.
Here's a signature in ...
11
No, you actually have another choice:
"At this point the program starts to printf the pot value."
Similarly, if you have another case like "Don't interrupt the program while it's printfing", you can also reword that:
"Don't interrupt the program during printf"
In short, printf is a programming-language token, not an English-language verb; so if ...
10
probe is from the Latin probare, which means "to test, to examine". It is used to mean an inquiry, or thorough examination, probing tends to imply getting inside something to reveal what is hidden, the truth.
A probe, as an object, is a device used to look within something else, to see what is veiled in some respect.
In the case of modprobe, the purpose ...
10
The verb is log in.
Log in to host.com
From the Wikipedia page for Login:
Spelling confusion
The verbs are two words: log in and
log out, whereas the nouns are login
and logout (often used like adjectives
in compound nouns).
10
“Reach out” is just so much mindless business twaddle. There are lots of web pages excoriating its promulgators.
For example, John Smurf’s MBA Jargon Watch defines it as follows:
reach out (v.)
To call or email. For this one, we can blame those old AT&T ads that encouraged folks to "reach out and touch someone." Obviously, you can't actually ...
9
It is word which is 16 bits.
They are (in order of increasing size)
BIT, NIBBLE, BYTE, WORD, DWORD, FWORD, QWORD, KiloByte, MegaByte
Please note that a word is the standard memory bus width in your architecture. It can be 8 bits or 16 bits or 32 bits or 64 bits based on the CPU.
You can read more about assembler(binary) here (this is a random link ...
8
Jargon, in that particular context, is not "using incorrect English words". It is this sense of the word:
the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group.
By definition, jargon is language usage that is not ubiquitous throughout the language, and as such is not standard (though it may have a very standard use within ...
8
"Love" is one of the ways you can read the number "0". So "fifteen love" means "The score is 15-0".
There are many theories about its origin. One is (taken from Wikipedia - but you'll find this anywhere):
The origin of the use of "love" for zero is also disputed. It is possible that it derives from the French expression for "the egg" (l'œuf) because an ...
8
I think this explains everything. I quote here the corresponding paragraph of the article in Wikipedia:
The Mayday callsign was originated in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897–1962). A senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, Mockford was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots ...
8
Usually you can just slap re on the front of a word, without a hyphen, and you will be understood. There’s no need for the term to have made its way into an “authoritative” dictionary, even if there were such a thing.
There are circumstances in which the hyphen is desirable:
if your new word with re collides with an established “re” word which has a ...
7
Mother-board
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board (PCB) in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals.
The first references I found are in 1956 to "mother" board, "mother-board" and "mother board"; the quotes suggest this is new ...
7
The correct answer will depend on your audience. For a highly technical audience such as engineers and programmers, you could keep the original sentence or use one of the more precise terms suggested by Midhat. Everyone in that audience will immediately understand your message because they are already familiar with the underlying concepts. To them, the ...
7
'Text' sounds mildly inappropriate to use, because that implies a
length (to me at least),
Text is the standard for this kind of data, String will probably make no sense to someone without a programming background. I'm a native English speaker and have never heard that saying Text implies a length.
7
10-4 simply means 'yes, I understand your message' in general CB (Citizen's Band) slang. Have a look at the Wikipedia page of CB slang for more.
A few of the more common CB slang phrases, including this one, made the transition into everyday speech, both in the US and further afield.
6
Without going into whether it is correct or not (I think it's acceptable), I can tell you why mathematicians use it. Sometimes, we want to emphasise the value of the limit. In such cases, we say "This sequence converges to 0" or "The limit of this sequence is 0". But sometimes, when we're more concerned with the analysis of the sequence (whether it is a ...
6
There are indeed one and two line whips - they basically boil down to how strong the expectation to vote is.
A single whip is simply a guideline, while a double whip (or two line whip) is stricter - and attendance at the vote is required. The three-line whip is a 'vote with the party or get out'.
The number of lines comes from the number of times that a ...
6
You are making a false equivalence between style and jargon. Here is how my electronic Webster's gives the various synonyms for "dialect", which includes jargon:
vernacular When a New York City cab driver calls out the window, “Hey, wassa madda wichoo?” he is using the vernacular, which is the authentic, natural pattern of speech among those belonging to ...
6
I think it inherits it merely from being part of the larger concept of regression analysis. From that, as per Wikipedia:
The term "regression" was coined by
Francis Galton in the nineteenth
century to describe a biological
phenomenon. The phenomenon was that
the heights of descendants of tall
ancestors tend to regress down towards
a normal ...
6
My suggestion:
word 1 - (visual) clutter
word 2 - you can use one of a number of words here, like select, sift, pick out, screen out, etc. but filter fits perfectly here and you will need to rephrase the sentence if you don't use it.
6
When using terms for non-programmers, one must try to see how the word will be interpreted by them. I once had a GUI which on which I had used the word "check sum" for a check-sum calculated from an order number (to catch entry errors.) I had clerks telling me that the software complained the check sum was wrong, but they had double-checked the amount on ...
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