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Subject:Re: Phrasing Question From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 28 Feb 1995 13:28:51 -0800
Charles Fisher poses an interesting challenge...
[snip]
> We have the capability to record a death for a person, but
> unfortunately some users may "kill" a person by mistake. Not
> to worry, however, because we also have the capability to
> bring them back to life if they're mistakenly killed off.
> Therein lies my problem. What do I call this "ressurection"
> procedure? We've unofficially called it "undeceasing" in house,
> but unfortunately that's not a real word. And other synonyms
> (revive, etc.) don't sound right.
[snip some *really* difficult to resist
opportunities for morose humor] ;-^)
> So far, my titles for the ressurection procedure are along the lines
> of "Correcting an accidentally recorded death" or "Correcting a
> record coded as deceased." Those are closer to what I want, but I want
> to be clear that the act of recording the death was a mistake (and this
> procedure will fix it), as opposed to the death itself being a
> mistake.
> Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is to come up with a
> short (ten words or less?) title for this procedure that describes
> what it does. Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
You don't say what you've officially called "bumping someone off",
so I don't have a parallel to draw here. However, I would recommend
that you keep the two functions as parallel as possible. Some
possibilities...
Assigning Deceased Status to a Record
Removing Deceased Status from a Record
Marking a Record as Deceased
Marking a Record as Living (or Not Deceased)
Is it a boolean? Perhaps, then, just:
Setting the Living/Deceased Parameter
I'd probably focus on changing the *record* rather than the
person, even though the record refers to a person. Although,
to be honest, no matter what you call it in the docs, the
users are gonna get a lot of laughs out of the procedure!
(I know I have ;-) )
There, I've done it! An entirely serious reply! You
really have to congratulate me!
Sue Gallagher
StarBase Corp, Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com
