Re: word of the day

[Ed <glassnet -at- gmail -dot- com>]

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 2:57 PM, McLauchlan, Kevin
<Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> wrote:
> I thought there was another term that nicely indicated a style of command-driven utility that started, accepted multiple commands, or just sat there, until actively dismissed - versus one that you call with all the parameters it's going to need, and it goes entirely away as soon as it completes the one task.

I'm documenting Windows and Solaris, used for intelligence analysis
applications. There are plenty of scripts that have grown up over the
years to install, configure, and maintain the applications. I'm
talking scripts here. These can be dissected with a text editor.

We call them scripts, and say that the script executes (or runs), and
at some point may present a prompt for user input.

Your post suggests, though, that these may be executable, compiled
programs. If so, I would call them programs. They also present a
prompt for user input. If nothing is entered, they may wait forever,
or hopefully time out gracefully.

At the beginning of your post you said the OS doesn't matter. But it
does. There are category names that UNIX people use, and these may or
may not agree with what a Windows admin or user might use. Solaris and
Linux each have dialects, as they address different users and needs.

The pejorative Windoze term is pretty old hat, too. I would define the
question without going there.


-- 
Ed
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author, 
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
http://www.doctohelp.com/ 

Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing -- 
generate 8 different formats and as many different versions as you need 
from just one project. Fast and intuitive.  http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat