I'm writing up the changes I have made to some software; said changes include separating some things into categories (I'm trying to avoid making this readable only to people who know about programming).
I am calling these categories domains (in the sense of "a sphere of activity," as definition 4 in Merriam-Webster), because software...
My current wording is
Separated the state and functions into the domains A, B, C, and D.
("State" and "functions" are programming things, but I believe it should still be completely understandable to the folks here on ELU.)
Is there a better word I can use in place of separate here? The sense is that there was a collection of things that are actually different but were still all together, and I have separated them into different groups. It also needs to express (as best it can) the fact that they were mixed together and that that was not ideal.
For clarity, I am considering "the state and functions" as a single set. The state in this case is a collection of component parts. So I have changed Everything = { valueA, functionA, valueB, valueC, functionC }
(for example) to A = { valueA, functionA }
, B = { valueB }
, C = { valueC, functionC }
.
The document is documentation for me and other programmers; it can be an uncommon/niche word if necessary.
I have considered/am considering:
Separate
What I was going to use.
In the sense:- "to divide into constituent parts" or "to isolate from a mixture" - Sense 5, Transitive verb, Merriam Webster
- "to divide into different parts or groups; to divide things into different parts or groups" - Sense 1, Verb, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
Divide
My original runner-up.
In the 1st or 3rd sense as given by Merriam-Webster:- 1.a. "to separate into two or more parts, areas, or groups"
- 1.b. "to separate into classes, categories, or divisions"
- 3.a. "to cause to be separate, distinct, or apart from one another"
Or the 1st sense given by Oxford Learner's Dictionaries: "to separate into parts; to make something separate into parts"
Partition
Seems to be more like simply splitting something up, like sharing out a cake. Same issue with split up.- "to divide into parts or shares" - Merriam-Webster
- "to divide something into parts" - Oxford Learner's Dictionary
Isolate
This makes it feel more like I isolated the "state and functions" from something else, not each other.- "to set apart from others" - Sense 1, Verb, Merriam-Webster
- "to separate somebody/something physically or socially from other people or things" - Sense 1, Verb, Oxford Learner's Dictionary
- "to separate a part of a situation, problem, idea, etc. so that you can see what it is and deal with it separately" - Sense 2, Verb, Oxford Learner's Dictionary
Distinguish (suggested by @WeatherVane) Captures the nuance of what I'm trying to express, but seems to be usually defined as noticing or understanding but not necessarily acting upon it (Merriam-Webster is the exception here). Also, I am not sure how exactly I would use this in my case. But otherwise a good choice!
- "to notice or understand the difference between two things" or "to recognize or understand the difference between two things" - Cambridge Dictionary
- "to perceive a difference in" - Sense 1, Merriam-Webster
- "to mark as separate or different" - Sense 2.a., Merriam-Webster
- "to separate into kinds, classes, or categories" - Sense 2.b., Merriam-Webster
- "to recognize the difference between two people or things" - Sense 1, Oxford Learner's Dictionary
I also considered categorize and classify, but those seem to be more about how something is considered than an actual act. In the context of software (at least in my experience), they are very likely to refer to some sort of labeling, not only an act of grouping (especially classify). In this particular case that distinction is important.
In a sense, there are three levels:
- Simply how something is considered, how it is mentally regarded
- How something is concretely labeled
- How something is physically arranged, which usually implies some sort of labeling as well.
This instance is the third case.
The thesaurus entries I looked at on Merriam-Webster didn't provide anything I could consider using that I have not included here.
Separate seems to best capture the nuance of "untangling" the things and "isolating" them from each other, but I would like to know if there is a better-suited word.