Re: 24/7 or 7/24?

["William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>]

I would say not to use 24/7 as an indication of having round the clock 
whatever it is you are giving.  24/7 is slang.

I don't believe slang has a place in technical documentation.

I don't believe aircraft manuals refer to GIB or DIB or even Whizzo, yet 
that slang is in common use. They refer to the weapons officer, co-pilot, 
navigator, or whatever the function is.  You don't say it is "big red switch 
time" but rather you say to reboot or power off the computer.  You do use 
blue screen, but blue screen is an accepted term for a blue screen.  I don't 
think I have ever seen in a technical manual it called the blue screen of 
death or BSOD.

Many of the wording issues on this list the last few months have been trying 
to get the language away from technical language and into a "street" 
language.  While some say it is necessary to hit the target audience, I 
think there is a point where dumbing down the material for the lowest common 
denominator is a mistake.  What's next?  We going to write jive?