Re: Synonym help

["Christopher M. Fisher" <Christopher_M_Fisher -at- ANDERSEN -dot- COM>]

Karen Steele writes:

> Okay, I'm running on empty 2day.  One of the guys in my office is looking
> for an alternative to Building Blocks, to describe the components of a
> system.  Something that implies building...

I assume that you have a problem with the term "system components"?  `:^?

To me, the term "building blocks" implies a set of system components that can
be rearranged into a number of different configurations.  If this definition
applies to your components, you might want to consider using a term like
"system modules," or even "modular components."

Unfortunately, it may be hard to come up with a good term for this concept that
can be used across organizational boundaries.  A lot of software organizations
have developed very specific definitions for terms like "component," "module"
and "configuration."  Obviously, these are among the first words that come to
mind when trying to describe your "building blocks" concept, but you want to be
sure that you're not stepping on someone else's toes with your terminology.  (I
suspect the "used terminology" issue is at least partly responsible for the
growing tendency of engineers and management to create
unique/non-descriptive/next-to-useless terms to describe very ordinary concepts
and objects ...)

If I'm off-target on my understanding of your "building blocks," please let me
know.

--Christopher Fisher
________________________________________________________________
"A mediocre mind thinks it writes divinely; a good mind thinks it writes
 reasonably."   --La Bruyere, _Characters_