24 Jul
2005
24 Jul
'05
11:59 a.m.
doesn't seem to be a regional thing.
In the docs I've been looking at, HP uses 'disc' while
DEC uses 'disk'.
Haven't looked at any 'DEC' docs from the Compaq or HP
era to see if it changes one way or the other.
24 Jul
24 Jul
12:17 p.m.
Disc is incorrect unless we're talking about a flying disc, in which case
it's slang for discus. (Although in eight years of competing in track and
field in high school and college, I never heard anyone say "my event is the
disc".)
In the "for what it's worth here" department, according the AP stylebook,
disk refers to any thin plate where computer data is stored, while diskette
refers to a floppy-style disk (compared to, for example, a hard disk)...
compact disc is an exception because in that case, disc is a proper noun
refering to the trademarked term.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of Al Kossow
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 11:59 AM
To: classiccmp at classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: disk versus disc
doesn't seem to be a regional thing.
In the docs I've been looking at, HP uses 'disc' while DEC uses
'disk'.
Haven't looked at any 'DEC' docs from the Compaq or HP era to see if it
changes one way or the other.
10:24 p.m.
CCN wrote...
Disc is incorrect unless we're talking about a
flying disc, in which case
it's slang for discus. (Although in eight years of competing in track and
field in high school and college, I never heard anyone say "my event is
the
disc".)
Wholly incorrect...
Disc/Disk is NOT a US/UK thing. Disc is perfectly acceptable. Nor does disc
and disk inherently refer to different types of media or drives (at least,
not until much later & modern MISuse bastardized it with the CD
connotation).
At one point (originally), BOTH versions were common. The greek origin is
diskos, the latin root is discus. Both are considered acceptable, however,
one or the other is generally chosen in a given field of study. HP (and
others) refer to disc, DEC (and others) refer to disk. Medical texts always
go with disc, as do most engineering texts I'm familiar with. I'm sure
there's other fields that standardized on "disk".
Mass media (printed) doesn't generally like two different spellings for the
same thing, and over time one becomes more common. Not because it's more
right, but it's just what the media feels they need to do.
Jay
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