Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!tank!tank.uchicago.edu!mitchell From: mitchell@tartarus.uchicago.edu (Mitchell Marks) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: A Hum Domain (also: how about a hum charter?) Message-ID: Date: 19 Feb 90 18:57:54 GMT References: <3284@iitmax.IIT.EDU> <3285@iitmax.IIT.EDU> <7721@yunexus.UUCP> Sender: news@tank.uchicago.edu Organization: University of Chicago Computer Science Lines: 51 In-reply-to: gall@yunexus.UUCP's message of 17 Feb 90 13:40:05 GMT >>>>> In article <7721@yunexus.UUCP>, gall@yunexus.UUCP (Norm Gall) >>>>> writes: NG> In the six universities I have been associated with, I've never seen NG> three letter codes for departments or faculties 4 and 2 letter NG> repectively is the norm in Canada)--so you might want to revise your NG> claim. Sure, and I've also seen six-letter forms (for departments). I wasn't claiming anything like an exceptionless generalization. I was supporting "hum" against the proposed alternatives "huma" and "hss". The point about 3-letters was directed against "huma", and depends on our present context, where "hum" will produce a nice parallelism with "sci" and "soc". The point about it being a fairly familiar abbreviation was directed against the purely neologistic "hss". MM> I reiterate the point that it can be pronounced like the name "Hume", MM> and in fact is widely so pronounced. Does this help anybody who is MM> worried about confusion with wordless-nasal-singiing? NG> So what 'hum' can be pronounce 'poop' for all anyone cares. Good. I'm quite glad you aren't bothered about this. But please, Norm, make use of the context avvailable to you. I didn't introduce the question of pronunciation into a vacuum. Others had already raised related questions, by objecting to "hum" in part on the grounds that it could be confused with the word (the more-or-less musical sense). People pointed out in reply that nobody would reasonably confuse a top-level category with this sense, and I added to this line of reply my small note to the effect that this collision might seem less troublesome (to the few people who found it troublesome at all) if they think of it as pronounced like 'Hume'. So, no, I don't really care how it would be pronounced; and I hope that the collision with the similarly-spelled word no longer remains troublesome to anybody. May I take it that you agree with me, on this point? NG> As I have said before--stop talking about it and start doing something NG> about it! Considering the huge amount of discussion that sometimes goes into even choosing between two good, plausible names for the creation of a single uncontroversial newsgroup, I suggest that it won't hurt to be a little patient and choose carefully now when we're talking about a top-level restructuring. -- Mitch Marks mitchell@cs.UChicago.EDU A mind's reach should exceed its grasp, Else what's a meta for?