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From: bzs@bu-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d,misc.misc
Subject: Literacy was: smail pronounciation
Message-ID: <4694@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: Fri, 27-Feb-87 17:03:51 EST
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.4694
Posted: Fri Feb 27 17:03:51 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Mar-87 12:02:27 EST
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 46
Xref: utgpu comp.sources.d:377 misc.misc:621


Terry Sterkel exudes...
>one of my pet peeves is the perversion of standard English by
>computer hackers too lazy to look in the dictionary.

All professional fields have their jargon. Chemists might really refer
to water as H20 and salt as Sodium Chloride even though the former of
each both appears in dictionaries and the latter do not (and water and
salt have been in use far longer than the technical names, or their
foreign language equivalents.)

The very term 'computer' you use is a piece of jargon that has only
come into wide acceptance in the last 20 years or so. Look at early
journals and you will see several terms being used for these
"electronic calculators", "electronic brains", "data processors" etc.

Your claim that a printer's terms are 'correct' has little merit. If a
user called me they wouldn't have the vaguest idea what a 'virgule'
was (most likely.) The purpose of language is to communicate (or have
you forgotten that?)

The term 'hacker' you use is purely idiomatic and not even of
unambiguous definition having been used widely to describe a certain
intense subculture of obsessive computer programmers, irresponsible
computer hobbyists who break into other systems and (the sense I get
from you) anyone who uses the jargon of a computer professional (that
is, most anyone who uses computers from a knowledgeable standpoint, as
opposed to a casual user.)

>Of course, I do not expect to reform 100K+ 
>recalcitrant hackers who defiantly wear illiteracy
>like a rebozo.  However, some worthwhile 
>discussion may be engendered.

"100K+" sounds like a bit of jargon to me, is that in your dictionary?
My dictionary tells me a "rebozo" is a type of Mexican scarf, hmm,
"...who defiantly wear illiteracy like a Mexican scarf", not very
useful, must be some idiomatic content to that but Webster isn't
helping (then again, we've already determined that you aren't
interested in language as a method of communication but, rather,
something to bonk your peers over the head with when they don't follow
your rules.)

You sirrah, are a boor.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University