Re: On computerese

[hohe72]

'catenate' is missing in Oxford learners and Oxford Compact Dictionary
as well. It's objected by my mail client also. Seems to be American 
English.

'concatenate' seems to be a more common technical term. I learned it in
study. Oxford mentioned it to be technical.

'use case' is a well defined technical term.

'use' is a general term. (Nothing at all.)

While texts in this mailing list generally tend to become very long and
noisy (no I don't read that), proper naming may condense communication.

Uniform communication is the base for understanding.

Holger

BTW, what's that: 'computerese'?



On Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:46:34 -0400
Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu> wrote:

> There it festered, right in the middle of Branden's otherwise high
> literary style: "use cases". I've despaired over the term ever since
> it wormed its way into computer folks' vocabulary. How does a "use
> case" differ from a "use"? Or, what's the use of "use case"?
> 
> And while I'm despairing, "concatenate" rolls on, undeterred by
> Research's campaign for concision. We determinedly excised the word
> from the seventh edition. The man page header for cat(1) read
> "catenate and print". Posix added content on both ends, making
> "concatenate and print files". Gnu puffed it up further to
> "concatenate files and print on the standard output".
> 
>  It's not as if the seventh edition was storming the gates of English.
> According to the OED, "catenate" and "concatenate" are synonyms of
> long standing that entered the language almost simultaneously. Why
> pick the flabby one over its brisk--and more mnemonic--rival?
> 
> Doug

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