Mathieu Roy wrote:
LOGICIEL: n.m. Ensemble de travaux de logique, d'analyse, de
programmation, nécessaires au fonctionnement d'un ensemble de
traitement de l'information <Emphasis> (opposé à matériel) </emphasis>.
(Emphasis mine).
A translation of the emphasized text is: (opposite to hardware).
Apparently you forgot to read/understand the rest of the phrase.
No, I did not. Dictionaries try to enumerate all the usual meanings of
words.
When I teach my Computer Architecture course (in French, I'm in
Montreal), I have to make a distrinction between hardware and software,
in the first lectures. I use, the term "logiciel" to mean software, in
the broad (yet seldom used) sense, which is indicated above in the
definition between parentheses (i.e. not hardware).
In other words, ask yourself: what is the opposite of matériel
(hardware) in French? Yes, French defines "logiciel" as the opposite of
hardware. There are no other terms, as far as I know. I agree that it
is not common to attach this semantic to this word, but it is allowed.
Please do not assume that every single word (in French, or in English)
has a single meaning (semantics). Most words have a variety of
meanings, that can change in a very subtle manner, depending on their
context of use. Logiciel is such a word.
Etienne
PS: Mailing-list usage policy mandates that you not CC me unless I ask
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--
Etienne M. Gagnon, Ph.D. http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM: http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC: http://www.sablecc.org/
