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Re: Reboot vs. Restart Windows


Mike Maxwell wrote:
That's not what I said, go back and re-read. Wait, I'll save you the trouble: I said that 99% of the words we know--not 99% of the people who know words--are our definitions that we infer from usage, rather than from looking them up.

The second thing that shows me that you can't read, is that I also did not suggest changing terminology. I suggested changing a message. And the change is away from a non-standard usage (in the Windows world) to a standard usage ("restart Windows").

As for my guesstimate, I am a linguist, and it is standard knowledge among linguists that most of the vocabulary we use (in our first language--second language learning is often different) is not from looking definitions up in dictionaries.
It's still a number you've pulled from your ask thus it stinks. Listen dude - I am often in the Windows world and standard usage in the Windows world is reboot - trust me!
Said people are using computers and most likely the net too. Is it really too much trouble for you to do a google search or say search out on answers.com or wikipedia?!?
Yes. To put it bluntly: I (as a native speaker of English) should not need to look up _any_ vocabulary in an error message, nor in any other message my computer gives me, with the exception of narrow technical domains--like, say, math terms. I would expect to need to look up words in a program like Mathemetica. But when that does happen, I would also expect the program to have a hyperlink to its internal definition (or possibly to a definition out on the web).
Then stick to linguistics buddy. Computer science is a discipline with it's own terminology. Were you really that stupid that running across the word "reboot" (as a native speaker of English and a linguist at that) you really had no idea and needed to run to google to understand that your computer would also be restarted?!? Give me a break!
Do you similarly campaign to have electricians or auto mechanics to change their terminology?!? This is
the field of computers (used to be called computer science). You're welcome to come into our world but like any profession you gotta learn the jargon....
Again, I am not suggesting changing the terminology of any profession. I am suggesting that it would be good for the CygWin message to use the standard vocabulary of the Windows world, since it is running under Windows.
The standard vocabulary of the Windows world *is* reboot. You may be a linguist but I've been in the business for some 25 years now. Trust me nobody's getting confused on reboot vs. restart and Windows users use the term reboot all the time. You are attempting to change the terminology indeed to one you prefer by your very request.
(To everyone else out there, I am not blaming the CygWin programmers; this is a minor point of clarifying a message, not a complaint. I just can't figure out why Andrew is so bent out of shape about it...)
Because you came off as being high and mighty and better than thou, knowing the true wisdom and as such I felt you needed to be knocked down a peg or two. You didn't come in here saying "I think that restart would be a better word than reboot" rather you came in here saying "I know that restart would be a better word than reboot".
Besides, times change, but usage changes more slowly. When I was in the Navy, the term for starting up any piece of equipment, be it a boiler or a computer, was "fire it up."
I'm willing to bet that that terminology was never allowed on a submarine!
I have no idea. Your point??
It's a joke sir! A joke!

However if I was to put a point to it I would say that "fire it up" may be a term of art in the Navy in some areas - but clearly it isn't in other areas. To come in insisting on a change of terminology into an area (computers) that you apparently are not an expert in a manner that suggests you know more than the experts in the field is arrogant. Likewise if you came into a submarine and insisted on using the term "fire it up" I think you would be roundly roasted (if not tossed overboard).

For the record, I'm not that hot on the difference between reboot vs. restart - they are both fine words. Rather I was protesting your rather arrogant attitude that you somehow know better.
I see no clearer benefit to using restart as opposed to reboot. Indeed reboot is a commonly accepted notion by most people in the business and now a days, most people not in the business but using computers themselves.
Certainly 'reboot' is used a lot. But the standard Ms Windows message is 'restart Windows.'
Right. And the standard directory err... folder separator in Windows is "\" and the standard option indicator is "/". Cygwin ain't Windows.
And I don't know the history, but I would not be surprised if the reason it started being used (around the time of Win95 or Win98, from what I can tell) is that it is less ambiguous--exactly the point I've been trying to make.
There are many terms in Windows and other OSes that differ. Directory vs. folder, for example. Now if Cygwin was attempting to be Windows like I'd say you have a point. But Cygwin is not attempting to be Windows like - it is attempting to implement a Linux like POSIX environment on top of Windows. You wouldn't suggest, for example, to rename mkdir to mkfolder, getopt to getswitches nor mv to ren. The latter in each case is more "Windows like" but breaks POSIX rules. Additionally it's just more stuff to maintain for the sake of what? Being more Windows like? It's not Cygwin's goal.

--

Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>
Budget: A method for going broke methodically.


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