Bad documentation says what things are. Good documentation says what they do.
You Need Verbs: Saying What Computers Do
Category: language
No Rest for the Wicked
The phrase “no rest for the wicked” is an amalgam of two passages in the Bible book of Isaiah.
Double Negation
A few years ago a user on Stack Exchange asked why the construction used in this English sentence is not considered a double negative.
If I don’t use the microphone, nobody will hear me.
Where Did Sputnik Get its Name?
On October 5, 1957, the Soviet newspaper Pravda announced that the Soviet Union had launched a 184 pound object into Earth orbit. That first artificial satellite has since come to be known in the English-speaking world as Sputnik. In the West it is now widely assumed that the Soviets chose the word sputnik as the name for their satellite because it means “fellow traveler.” This is not what actually happened.
Fire Dogs
The following story is from Lev Tolstoy’s First Russian Reader of 1875. This is my translation. As far as I know it has never before appeared in English.
Communicating Clearly About Computing
Those of use who work in IT are frequently called upon to explain our work to people who are less familiar with computers than we are. It should be our goal to speak and write as clearly as possible. To do that we must avoid jargon, slang and expressions which are easily misunderstood. We should not write to be understood. We should write so as not to be misunderstood.
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Draco’s Policies were Draconian
Have you every wondered why we call a harsh policy “draconian”? This is one of those words which comes from the name of a famous person.
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