User

[btiffin]

Very few trades call their customers "users". Two come to mind.

Can anyone here come up with a better expression for utilizing software and/or a term for the people operating the programs? Or perhaps it would be better to come up with a more derogatory expression for addicts?

Should I care? I'm about to write the User Guide to OpenCOBOL, and I don't want to employ the expression User Guide. As OpenCOBOL is free, Owner's Manual isn't quite right. Utilization Guide to OpenCOBOL is the current working title, but it sounds snooty, (or is that snorty?). Am I just being a jerk user?

Cheers

[Zeroth]

Engineer's Guide

[andrew.]

Just call it "Guide to OpenCOBOL".

[Zeroth]

Or "Tinkerer's Guide to OpenCOBOL"

[btiffin]

andrew. @ Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:08 pm wrote:

Just call it "Guide to OpenCOBOL".

Nice.

This will work. Along with the Developer's Guide and the OpenCOBOL Reference Manual, I think Guide to works nicely.

Thanks Andrew. Bits.

Cheers
Doesn't really get rid of my trivial yet hard to shake problem with the term User, but helps vaticinate hope

[gitoxa]

There's also the term "operator" that can be used in the place of "user"

[Dan]

I think caring about the word "users" in terms of software being the same as "users" in terms of drug is just silly and is exctaly one of the "points" the book User Error: Resisting Computer Culture trys to make for the case that computer culture and the progamming insudtry is some how evil and has some kind of plan to devalue peoleop's exsitcen.

Don't give in to Ellen Rose (the author) and here crack pot anti-tehcnogly/anti-programer dogma.

Any intelgent person whould not confuse a drug user and a user of software or even think there is some realtion between them.

The hole thing is a rather odd fallacie where you are assuming that since "Drug User" is bad therefore "X User" is bad, where X can be anything and in this case a software user. Or that becues "User" can refure to a drug user therefore any use of the word "User" refuring to a person is negtive. Theres no reason why the same argment can not be used for "Client", "Customer" or "Consumer", and the only reason it's not is that thos words are used more offten.

The word user is used in this industry becues "Customer", "Consumer", "Client", and other nomral business industry words do not work for software in all cases. A person who uses software may not nesarly be the person who purcahes it and you may not nessarly have any dirct business realtions with the person who ends up using the software so there not nessarly customers and there not nessarly clients and they don't use up the software so there not consumers so logicaly you would say they are "users of the software" witch gets shorten to "users". There is no malice in it just logic.

Well thats my rant on the subject, and in summary don't read anything by Ellen Rose

[ecookman]

i like the idea of... operation manual

[btiffin]

Dan @ Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:35 am wrote:

I think caring about the word "users" in terms of software being the same as "users" in terms of drug is just silly ... There is no malice in it just logic.

Well thats my rant on the subject, and in summary don't read anything by Ellen Rose

And Dan comes through with another; "Don't try and fix silly non-problems." Perhaps that post will help me to get over this useless stance that has only recently started to bother me.

Cheers

[md]

Call them users, then when you think of them as lusers in your mind you can laugh at them.

[btiffin]

md @ Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:40 am wrote:

Call them users, then when you think of them as lusers in your mind you can laugh at them.

chuckle out loud; Yeah, perhaps it is time for a new programming system. L. Leading to L users.

Cheers

[S_Grimm]

How else can you describe a person who uses the end product? They are USING it, no matter if you call them consumers, operators or drug addicts, they are all using a project. Hence they are users.

However, i do like the sound of operator better than user. Sounds more profesional. Polished. Good.

[Unforgiven]

A\V @ Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:42 am wrote:

However, i do like the sound of operator better than user. Sounds more profesional. Polished. Good.

Operator sounds more professional maybe, but (in some cases) at the expense of accuracy, maybe. I mean, technically I'm operating Firefox right now, but really, which sounds more accurate? Using a browser, or operating it? It might just be me, but I think of "operating" as being much more involved.

[btiffin]

Thanks for the thread gentlefolk.

I'll opine that this is partly due to compsci being so relatively young and opening new territory.

When you use a car, you drive and it comes with and Owners Manual.
When you use a frying pan, you cook with a cookbook.
When you use plane, you are a pilot or passenger.
When you use a store, you are a customer or clerk.
Lawyers have clients. And computer professionals have: hopheads and hype.

Just for fun, here is the dict.org thesaurus entry for user:

code:

connecting to: all.dict.org "user" moby-thes "Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0" 45 Moby Thesaurus words for "user":    LSD user, acidhead, addict, alcoholic, buyer, chain smoker,    cocaine sniffer, cokie, consumer, cubehead, dipsomaniac,    dope fiend, doper, droit du seigneur, drug abuser, drug addict,    drug user, drunkard, employer, enjoyer, enjoyment of property,    fiend, freak, glue sniffer, habitual, head, heavy smoker, hophead,    hype, imperfect usufruct, junkie, marijuana smoker, methhead,    narcotics addict, operator, owner, perfect usufruct, pillhead,    pothead, purchaser, right of use, snowbird, speed freak, tripper,    usufruct

and from this, usufruct is pretty close

code:

connecting to: all.dict.org "Usufruct" gcide "The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48" Usufruct \U"su*fruct\ (?; 277), n. [L. usufructus, ususfructus,    usus et fructus; usus use + fructus fruit.] (Law)    The right of using and enjoying the profits of an estate or    other thing belonging to another, without impairing the    substance. --Burrill.    [1913 Webster]

But I care less and less now. I think it was a brain fart. Cured by the simple act of being a compsci.ca user and discussing.

Cheers

[Dan]

I think you are not considering some of the most important factors in naming it.

If you want some one to read your manual/guide they have to be able to find it. If i am searching for a guide on OpenCOBOL i am not going to search for things like "operation manual" or other silly word being exchanged for "user". You want to name it what people are going to search for when looking for it.

Second you need to name it such that people will know what it is right away by reading the title. "Operation Manual" makes me think it is about how to install and run the langue and not about coding in it, simply just calling it the guide to OpenCOBOL will cause problems if there are any other offical OpenCOBOL guides, "Tinkerer's Guide to OpenCOBOL" is a nice sound title but might as well be Guide to OpenCOBOL unless there are peoleop who would read it that don't think and "Engineer's Guide" makes me think it is for the people building the language or for real engineer's sloving engineering problems in it.

Thridaly is standardziation. There proably or at least should be a singal commonly used word in the OpenCOBOL community to refure to peoleop who use there software. If there is such a word that is what should be used, if there's not you probaly want to fall back on the standard word used in the industry witch is "User"

I would say all theses factors madder expenstionaly more (if not infinitely more) then if the word "User" is bad becues has muptial defftions in the english langue (like most words do) and one of them is negtive even tho it is cearly unrealted and no one would mix them up in such a context.


P.S. Sorry if i am ranting again but i hate Ellen Rose and this topic gives me flash backs to when i was force to read her "books".