On 24/09/2024 19:32, k...@aspodata.se wrote:
So should computer words be defined by non-professionals or thoose who knows ?
Well, before computers, I thought servers worked in restaurants ... (And what the hell are thoose :-)
One effect of letting non-professionals define words is the case when the poeple handling the collection of television licences had the opinion the a computer is a television set and hence people with a computer should pay for the right to view television.
Well, given the number of times I've had to explain to professionals how they should be doing their *own* job, I really don't think they are the right people to be let loose on a dictionary ... your typical professional is paid to do, not to think, and boy do they make a point of NOT thinking ... (unless they're absolutely forced to, of course.)
(Oh - and if you're talking about the UK licence fee, I've had my arguments with them about their ability to understand plain English - like the EXPLICIT wording on the licence "if you are living away from home eg as a student, you are covered by your home licence if your tv is not plugged in to the mains". So they demanded my student daughter have her own licence for her battery-powered tv!)
At the end of the day, jargon is jargon. What matters is that we have a STANDARD. And whether you like it or not, the STANDARD says that X is using the words the wrong way round. Never mind that X pre-dates the standard.
It's when people who should know better redefine words that things get hairy - like the computing professor who used "real time" when he meant "online" or "interactive". And got rather upset when I pointed out that "interactive" and "real time" were different and confusing the two could cause real harm.
Or those plain idiots who insist on using the word "memory" and refuse to learn the difference between RAM and disk.
At the end of the day, the meaning of any individual work is irrelevant. What matters is that we have a shared understanding, a STANDARD.
The only thing that bothers me is those idiots who expect me to be a mind reader, and who expect me to realise when they use the word A, they actually want me to understand the word B. I don't care whether the word "server" means a restaurant waiter, some computer in a computer room somewhere, Xorg, or what. Just so long as I have a shared understanding with the person I'm talking to, and they don't expect me to mind-read because they can't be bothered to use the right word in the right context.
Cheers, Wol
