Open vs Appear, Yet Again (was: "RE: WG: Newbie question)

[James Barrow]

>>Only in magic does something appear.

>This chestnut must have been in a popular book or course somewhere ;)
>Things appear all the time.

As I'm chortling over Greg's comments, I'm reminded of the times that I've
used "appear" in my documentation.  Most of the editors that I've worked for
discouraged the use of that word citing the lack of a cause-and-effect
relationship.  Granted, whether one uses "appear" or "display", the same
meaning is conveyed.  But the editors that I referenced tended to believe
that using the word "appear" in step procedures made them sound disjointed.

>>Quibble about it all that you want, but software doesn't show you
>>anything. What it does, in the purest sense is modify the pixel display
>>on the>monitor, therefore, when you click on something, the computer or
>>application displays the results of that function or process.

Man, is this mensa-l or what? :^)  You are correct in that this is an
execution/result.

>But we don't talk like that, do we?  Users drag something over
>and drop it; they don't change the X and Y coordinates by depressing
>the left mouse button while the mouse cursor is positioned over...
>well, not really "over" in two dimensions, but congruent with the icon
>and with a higher Z-index...;)  No, we say "drag the email to the >folder".

Um...you're describing what tech writers do:  make technical stuff like this
easy for people to understand.  

>From the user's point of view, a dialog box "appears".  It doesn't
>slide in, fade in (well, these days it might ...), drop in from above,
>or walk in.  It just appears, as a result of either their click or
>some other instigation.

Instigate?!  Ay carumba.  How about "trigger"?  :^)

- Jim