Press On

[Edward Savitz <sg94cshj -at- DUNX1 -dot- OCS -dot- DREXEL -dot- EDU>]

Pressing on.

"Huber, Mike" Mike -dot- Huber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM> wrote:

> I tend to agree with the negative connotation. But it
> doesn't mean (in my mind) the same thing as "cancel."

"Susan W. Gallagher" sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> wrote:

> "[T]erminate" and "stop" have totally different meanings
> from "abort", which carries with it the "abnormal" and
> "without completion" connotations missing from the other
> two choices.

Eric Haddock <eric -at- ENGAGENET -dot- COM> wrote:

>   Whenever I hear the word "abort," I can't not think
> about abortion. No matter what the context is I can't help
> myself.
>    To me, anything with "abort" in it has a negative
> connotation even if the action itself is merely a computer
> sort. My sensitivity to this is in the minority I know
> <snip>


Even though academically, we know <abort> means to halt in the midsts of
something, abortion is inevitably an image that arises.
With "Strike any key ..."  or "Hit any key ..." to continue, I believe a
message is being sent or an image is evoked of applying a
more-than-required amount of pressure to the key.

Working with college students on heavily-overworked PCs, I always say
"press" in my lectures.  Also, with auto-repeating keys, I remind students
that, with certain keystroke combinations such as Ctrl-C, you hold down
the Ctrl key and tap ONCE the C key.  I use that grammatically
incorrect sequence of words to catch them before they bash or hold.
There are still many people who are from the Olivetti or Underwood typewriter
generation who haven't gotten with "power steering" yet.

Press on.

Ed Savitz
sg94cshj -at- dunx1 -dot- ocs -dot- drexel -dot- edu