Re: style/vocabulary question [restart]

[Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- CHISP -dot- NET>]

Rowena Hart wrote:

>I need some answers regarding use of the word "restart".
>Many of our documents use the word "restart" to mean
>both "stop" and "start". In effect, we are assuming that the
>user knows that the server has stopped due to a failure
>or because the administrator manually stopped the
>server to reset certain services or operations.  "Services
>will continue using these settings until the server is
>restarted," for example.
>
>"Restart" does not appear in the Microsoft Manual of
>Style, and the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary refers
>the reader from "restart" to "reboot", which it defines as
>"To restart a computer by reloading the operating system."
>
>Have any of you wrestled with the word before?  Is it
>acceptable to add "stop" to the meaning of this word?
>What style/usage guidelines did you establish?

I think "restart" is fine.  System administrators, especially, are familiar
with it, including the optional extra meaning of "stop first".

I'm afraid I disagree with Scott Wahl's comment.  Well, I agree that
"restart" is redundant if the system is already stopped, but I also think
that redundancy has many uses, such as confirming and reinforcing the
reader's understanding.  That is, not all redundancy is good and not all
redundancy is bad.

If you were guiding a sysadmin through some procedure in person, you'd say,
"And now restart the system", not "And now start the system."  The latter
suggests, well, just getting started in the first place, as opposed to an
action in the middle of a series of actions.

--
Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- chisp -dot- net>
Author,  _Practical Software Requirements: A Manual of Content & Style_
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1884777597
http://www.manning.com/Kovitz


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