Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 11:18:27 -0300 From: Ataualpa Albert Carmo Braga <atabraga@iqm.unicamp.br> To: chromexa@ovis.net Cc: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au>, David Chavarria <davidc@huyett.com>, FreeBSD Newbies <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG>, Steve-o Kudlak <chromexa@o.q.net>, ulmoq <ulmo@q.net> Subject: Re: Hard words [was: Dictionary of Terms] Message-ID: <15985.58547.723458.569198@bico-de-lacre.iqm.unicamp.br> In-Reply-To: <3E71E3D5.57838161@ovis.net> References: <KAEAKMACDAGFNDDHIBJIOEGPCAAA.davidc@huyett.com> <20030314121550.J67648@welearn.com.au> <3E71E3D5.57838161@ovis.net>
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http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html >>>>> on Friday, 14 Mar 2003 14:14:45, Steve Kudlak wrote: | | | |Sue Blake wrote: | |> On Thu, Mar 13, 2003 at 02:15:59PM -0600, David Chavarria wrote: |> > I like the man pages and the handbook, but I was wondering if anyone knew |> > of a dictionary that alphabetically listed FreeBSD/Unix terms? |> > |> > Or, is my best bet to just man a term I don't know when I come across it? |> |> Some of those words will have man pages, but for a while I've been |> concerned about another group of words that newbies might struggle with. |> |> These are ordinary everyday words that have been adopted with a |> specific relevance to unix which isn't always very clear despite |> the familiarity of the word. Also it can be a bit hard to translate |> from the word's everyday concept to the unix concept. |> |> Some other words are just plain English words, but not ones we all |> use often. Some people would use or hear them in their work or study |> while others would never encounter them. Ten years ago the average |> computer user had a large vocabulary and was in the habit of growing |> it daily, but that is no longer the case. If you're sweating over a |> man page about some new complex thingy, the last thing you need is |> to be diverted by a difficult word or concept along the way. |> |> Let me try to think of some examples... |> recursive |> precedence |> canonical |> dynamic |> architecture |> delimiting |> collation |> primaries |> lexicographically |> descend |> string |> precedence |> hierarchy |> default |> operator |> spool |> traversal |> pseudo |> cooked |> raw |> affirmatively |> escaped |> superseded |> interface |> verbose |> statically |> contiguous |> append |> construct |> implicit |> adjacent |> meta |> truncated |> indirection |> operand |> options |> argument |> parameter |> reiteratively |> asynchronous |> |> I bet you're all saying that some of those words are easy, but not |> everyone would agree on which are the easy words. New unix users |> might find it easier to ask "what does inode mean" ( = I'm new to |> this unix stuff) than "what does implicit mean" ( = personally I |> don't have a good vocabulary). |> |> Although all those words can be found in a dictionary, the dictionary |> isn't going to help the task at hand very much. Most are not |> likely to be found in a dictionary of computing because they're |> regarded as ordinary English words. |> |> You might also encounter concepts which a basic unix book or course |> should make clear, though they often don't spell it out in a way |> that's easy to look up: |> link to/from |> mounted on |> links are followed |> indirected through |> soft limit |> null string |> span filesystems |> rooted in |> referenced by |> mutually exclusive |> |> Have other people been stalled by words like those listed above, |> or is it not such a big deal after all? |> |> This sort of problem is sometimes addressed in freebsd-questions, |> where all FreeBSD help requests and answers should go. |> |> On the other hand, in freebsd-newbies we can look at this stuff |> preemptively (yikes there's another word!) in order to help |> each other navigate the documentation for themselves, and it's |> not really a question about FreeBSD after all. |> |> If anyone has any ideas or resources that might help others to deal |> with the general vocabulary, I'm sure your contribution would be |> welcome. |> |> -- |> |> Regards, |> -*Sue*- |> |> |> |> |> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org |> with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message | |Maybe there should be a hardwords dictionary. I am |hardly a newbie so I think of those words in the various |situations, dare I say "contexts" where I used them. |Like did those things mean different things in the |PDP10/ITS/TENEX world, uh like when I was a |real newbie, from the world in which I am now inwhich |is Unix and its flavours. For more fun remember |what the word "preempt" meant in Multics and what |"You are Protected from Preemptipon" really means. | |So perhaps one should look at what these words mean |in various technical contexts. A little technical dictionary |would be a great idea as these words come up time and |again in various situations. To me it was being able to read |through things and see the terms and have them mean |something to me and "get the gist" of things that convinces |me I am on the way to understanding things. | |I think/feel this applies to a whole variety of technical |fields. I mean I could prepare a bunch of words like that |from biology and medicine like "sense" and "anti-sense" |among others. I mean there should be a T-shirt that says |"anti-sense is not nonsense!" | |Not none of this gets as weird as some version of |art jargon. I certainly like that and many people now |get what (dare I say "grok") the phrase "informed by" |means. Hmmm should I throw in the aesthetics folks |just for good measure here? | |Have Fun, |Sends Steve | | | | |To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org |with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message -- Ataualpa Albert Carmo Braga atabraga@iqm.unicamp.br http://www.iqm.unicamp.br ###################################################################### # "Work is the refuge of people who have nothing better to do." # # Oscar Wilde # ###################################################################### To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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