Re: Abort, Retry, Fail

[Jim Walsh <jimw -at- TENNESSEE -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>]

Hello Out There:

I can't believe that people are looking up "abort" and other terms in the
 dicitionary
for an explanation. Isn't it clear that because there is confusion, the company
 that
uses these terms for whatever reason has failed to explain these terms
 succinctly in
written form somewhere? Isn't it clear that their technical writing staff has
 failed
to identify a confusion area and failed to correct this? Every error should have
 a
written definition as well as a solution. I personally like numbered errors and
 a
lookup table giving me all the causes and tests for correction. If the disk
 operating
system has failed in doing this, then I suggest you write them (Microsoft???)
 instead
of (or as well as, since it's fun reading all this stuff) TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot-  (Hey,
 don't
blame me -- it's Monday morning, and I'm having a gripe attack.)

Thanks for listening -- Jim Walsh     jimw -at- tennessee -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com   (the tennessee
 is
                                                                  for my
 favorite author)

*******  *********  ***********  ***********  *************  ***********
 ***********
*  Comments: To: TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu
*  To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L <TECHWR-L -at- OSUVM1 -dot- BITNET>

*  > From: David Oberstadt <uunet!VNET.IBM.COM!daveo>
*  >
*  > ...
*  > I looked up Abort and Fail in my handy 1994 IBM Dictionary of
*  > Computing (c). Here is what it has:
*  >
*  > Abort
*  >    In data communications, ...

*  My 7th edition (1991) also has:

*  (2) In data processing, _deprecated_ term for end abnormally, stop. (emphasis
*   mine)

*  So, at least in _that_ edition IBM agreed that "abort" is not the correct
 term.

*  Computer programming has long had may violent terms, for example, "killing" a
*  program and "postmortem" dump.  These are, after all, just jargon.  Others
 may
*  speculate about and study how and why these terms came into use.  We should
 ask
*  ourselves whether they belong in the user interface or documentation.  I, for
*  one, can't see why they do.

*  On the distinction between "abort" and "fail":  When the user chooses "fail,"
*  it _should_ mean that the current operation terminates and reports back to
*  whatever initiated it that it failed.  When the user chooses "abort," the
*  whole program or process should terminate immediately.  I don't have a
*  reference, but I'm pretty sure that these are the common meaning of these
*  terms in programming.  If particular programs don't do this, well...

*  -Fred
*  --
*  INTERNET: fred -at- boole -dot- com          PHONE: (408) 526-3292  FAX: (408) 526-3055
*  USPS: Fred Jacobson / Boole & Babbage / 3131 Zanker Road / San Jose CA 95134