8 Apr
2000
8 Apr
'00
4:28 a.m.
Richard:
available and more used in the U.S. than anywhere
else. Consequently the
techniques spread. I doubt programming will ever be freed from the mantle
of "mystical art" or "right-brain activity" long enough to allow the
introduction of discipline. I'm beginning to believe that programming is
more a disease than an engineering discipline. It seems more folks get
into
it indirectly and almost against their own wishes.
Thank goodness that
they
stick with it long enough to generate the tools we all
use and love to
hate.
This is a good point. I write code, lots of it. I'm a hardware person so
I'm
one of those that really do not see myself as programmer save for I'm forced
to! Also while I do see hardware as art (right brain) programming for me is
mostly mechanical/procedural and IDEs drive me nuts for that reason.
On the other hand, in the last 10 years there have been more lines of code
generated the likely the preceeding 20 years and so on. The need to solve
problems does force this forward.
SEANS copy:
> The project he's on is a complete disaster as
the manager went for a
> Microsoft solution using slews of programs communicating via COM,
> DCOM, OLE and other alphabet soup of Microsoft technology. A year
> later and it still doesn't work and my friend has basically told the
> manager it has to be scrapped and done from scratch, preferably
> using something other than Microsoft (although my friend might have
> a slight bias).
Richard:
BTW, your apparent juxtaposition of one word for its homomymn, and it
happens all too often with this particular one.
There's this term,
pronounced "sloo" which is often misspelled "slew" but which should
be
"slough" also pronounced "sloo" meaning a swamp or quagmire.
To me fyi, SLEW is my word of choice for things that have a delta, IE:
any moving target. MS interfaces are clearly slewed over time.
While it must bother some as misuse, I read it as both usages as
one rather funny pun. It is a quagmire and also there are a rather large
collection of goo all adhering to the mess called Windows. Got any Windex?
The idea of a windowing system, thank xerox parc for that, apple and MS
put it in front of people when hardware to run it got reasonable, it was a
hit.
historically "windowing" was the killer idea just like visicalc and easy to
use databases (dbase) that needed to happen to get a lot of computers
on more than desks of computer savy people.
Allison
8 Apr
8 Apr
9:54 a.m.
Being a foreigner myself, naturalized in '60 or so, and having gotten
through the school system without aid of ESOL and other programs designed to
make it easy to communicate without ever having learned the language in a
rigorous way, I guess I'm oversensitized to syntax errors of this type.
They're a petty annoyance the way spelling once was, but now that so many
folks filter out their own spelling and "typer-geographical" errors the ones
that the spell-checker can't catch are all that remain. It's painful to me
to see one use 'wrote' when what's meant is 'rote' and that sort of
thing.
Once in a while I have to jump someone for comitting such a sin.
Your defense is unnecessary, since it's only by coincidence that I happened
to jump on this error, having seen it several times over the past few weeks.
However, the sense I got was the MS was being dogged because of its lack of
a delta, i.e innovation and its proclivity to do so ad nauseum. If you
misspell/mistype a word now and again, it's no big deal these days.
This particular expression is use so much without a thought as to its actual
meaning. I'm not entirely certain how the term slough became associated
with an indeterminate but large number, but that seems to be what is meant.
I guess it started with someone referring to ducks or frogs or mosquitoes.
There once was a daily or weekly vignette on NPR, in which the host, named
John Ciardi (pronounced CHARDY, tough I'm guessing at the spelling)
presented the entymology of commonly used linguistic constructs like this
example. I don't believe I ever heard his take on this one.
Though computers have relieved us of the burden of learning proper
orthography, it's well remembered that the spelling gives indication as to
the meaning only if it's correct.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: allisonp <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: !Re: Nuke Redmond!
forced
Richard:
>available and more used in the U.S. than anywhere else. Consequently
the
>techniques spread. I doubt programming will ever
be freed from the
mantle
of
"mystical art" or "right-brain activity" long enough to allow the
introduction of discipline. I'm beginning to believe that programming is
more a disease than an engineering discipline. It seems more folks get
into
it indirectly and almost against their own wishes.
Thank goodness that
they
stick with it long enough to generate the tools we
all use and love to
hate.
This is a good point. I write code, lots of it. I'm a hardware person so
I'm
one of those that really do not see myself as programmer save for I'm to! Also while I do see hardware as art (right brain)
programming for me
is
mostly mechanical/procedural and IDEs drive me nuts
for that reason.
On the other hand, in the last 10 years there have been more lines of code
generated the likely the preceeding 20 years and so on. The need to solve
problems does force this forward.
SEANS copy:
Windex?
> The project he's on is a complete
disaster as the manager went for a
> Microsoft solution using slews of programs communicating via COM,
> DCOM, OLE and other alphabet soup of Microsoft technology. A year
> later and it still doesn't work and my friend has basically told the
> manager it has to be scrapped and done from scratch, preferably
> using something other than Microsoft (although my friend might have
> a slight bias).
Richard:
BTW, your apparent juxtaposition of one word for its homomymn, and it
happens all too often with this particular one.
There's this term,
pronounced "sloo" which is often misspelled "slew" but which should
be
"slough" also pronounced "sloo" meaning a swamp or quagmire.
To me fyi, SLEW is my word of choice for things that have a delta, IE:
any moving target. MS interfaces are clearly slewed over time.
While it must bother some as misuse, I read it as both usages as
one rather funny pun. It is a quagmire and also there are a rather large
collection of goo all adhering to the mess called Windows. Got any
The idea of a windowing system, thank xerox parc for that, apple and MS
put it in front of people when hardware to run it got reasonable, it was a
hit.
historically "windowing" was the killer idea just like visicalc and easy
to
use databases (dbase) that needed to happen to get a
lot of computers
on more than desks of computer savy people.
Allison
1:38 p.m.
On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Richard Erlacher wrote:
I guess I'm oversensitized to syntax errors of
this type.
I know how you feel, dude.
Once in a while I have to jump someone for comitting
such a sin.
Hear, hear!
There once was a daily or weekly vignette on NPR, in
which the host, named
John Ciardi (pronounced CHARDY, tough I'm guessing at the spelling)
presented the entymology of commonly used linguistic constructs like this
example.
Dude, unless he was talking about ants, I'm pretty sure you meant
"etymology"!
Cheers,
Doug
2:59 p.m.
On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Doug Salot wrote:
> There once was a daily or weekly vignette on NPR,
in which the host, named
> John Ciardi (pronounced CHARDY, tough I'm guessing at the spelling)
> presented the entymology of commonly used linguistic constructs like this
> example.
It is Ciardi. My favorite was the show where he discussed words like
"moron" and "idiot."
6:05 p.m.
That was a great, though short, interlude. I miss it. Too bad the guy had
to die on us.
Note that I've corrected the two errors I made in the quoted segment.
Neither of them would have been caught by the spell-checker. Have you
noticed how often this happens in the newspapers? Common undetected
errors, hence syntax rather than spellin errors, are using insure where
ensure is appropriate, and of course, then where than goes, or vice-versa.
When I was in high school I worked as a copy reader and later copy-writer at
a local (neighborhood) newspaper. They don't have those any longer, so now
we see the mistakes we never used to see.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron Christopher Finney <af-list(a)wfi-inc.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: !Re: Nuke Redmond!
On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Doug Salot wrote:
> > There once was a daily or weekly vignette on NPR, in which the host,
named
> > John Ciardi (pronounced CHARDY, though
I'm guessing at the spelling)
> > presented the etymology of commonly used linguistic constructs like
this
> example.
It is Ciardi. My favorite was the show where he discussed words like
"moron" and "idiot."
5:59 p.m.
See there, that's the sort of typer-geographical error or perhaps brain-fart
to which I referred. Judging from th ewear on the keytops, I've been
leaning on the keyboard too much. That, is one of those things that would
slip by the spell-checker if I ever remembered, in my haste to "ship-it," to
run it.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Salot <doug(a)blinkenlights.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 7:38 PM
Subject: Re: !Re: Nuke Redmond!
On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, Richard Erlacher wrote:
named
I guess I'm oversensitized to syntax errors
of this type.
I know how you feel, dude.
Once in a while I have to jump someone for
comitting such a sin.
Hear, hear!
> There once was a daily or weekly vignette on NPR, in which the host, > John Ciardi (pronounced CHARDY, tough I'm
guessing at the spelling)
> presented the entymology of commonly used linguistic constructs like
this
example.
Dude, unless he was talking about ants, I'm pretty sure you meant
"etymology"!
Cheers,
Doug
3:14 p.m.
Though computers have relieved us of the burden of
learning proper
orthography, it's well remembered that the spelling gives indication as to
the meaning only if it's correct.
What does the study of birds have to do with language? ;) How many sides
does an orthogon have anyway?
The basic problem is that technologists often have no respect for language,
or any other "soft" science. Hence the creation of jargon, which is best
never considered "english", but it still gets used so tough.
Slew is a dandy term, anybody working with operational amplifiers knows it
refers to the rate of change of a signal, the slew rate.
6:15 p.m.
Easy, now! Study of birds is ornithology. Orthography is spelling. Please
see additional wisecracks embedded below.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: !Re: Nuke Redmond!
make.
>Though computers have relieved us of the burden of
learning proper
>orthography, it's well remembered that the spelling gives indication as
to
the meaning
only if it's correct.
What does the study of birds have to do with language? ;) How many sides
does an orthogon have anyway?
From the look of it I'd say it has jointed sides, however many that would
The basic problem is that technologists often have no respect for
language,
or any other "soft" science. Hence the
creation of jargon, which is best
never considered "english", but it still gets used so tough.
Well, it's best to reserve the designation of language to what most of us
use. The English language has the facilities to allow us to express quite
precisely what we want or need to say. It seldom happens, though. I
remember mentioning a few weeks back that with the trend toward minimalism
in vocabulary, we'll be trying to interpret meaning from inflections on the
single monosyllabic grunt we'll be using in another 30 years or so.
Slew is a dandy term, anybody working with operational amplifiers knows it
refers to the rate of change of a signal, the slew rate.
Yes, and that's in teravolts per femtosecond, right?
7:11 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Richard Erlacher once stated:
I once calculated I was 5 femtofortnights in height.
-spc (How that's for mixing dimentions? 8-)
Slew is a dandy term, anybody working with
operational amplifiers knows it
refers to the rate of change of a signal, the slew rate.
Yes, and that's in teravolts per femtosecond, right?
9 Apr
9 Apr
12:04 a.m.
Slew is a
dandy term, anybody working with operational amplifiers knows it
refers to the rate of change of a signal, the slew rate.
Yes, and that's in teravolts per femtosecond, right?
> 
5:07 a.m.
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22 May
22 May
7:10 p.m.
New subject: Lisp Machines: Followup
In my researches, I've found that machines such as the Symbolics LM-2, the
original LMI machine modelled after an LM-2, and systems such as the MIT
CADR were all microcoded machines. I'd think that this argues for a less
restrictive definition of LISP machines ;-)
24 May
24 May
5:33 a.m.
New subject: Lisp Machines: Followup
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8929
days inactive
8975
days old
12 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
af-list＠wfi-inc.com -
allisonp＠world.std.com -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
doug＠blinkenlights.com -
edick＠idcomm.com -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
spc＠armigeron.com -
vonhagen＠vonhagen.org