Dreamsmith wrote:
Candy wrote:thinking about this as a noob, guru meditation seems very weird, panic seems like something a computer can't do (you've never seen one running around frantically, now have you?). Crash might indicate the good thing, but is a little exaggerated. Your car crashes if it hits a wall. When the engine fails, it's a failure. When you make a mistake you've made an error.
Well, no, a computer cannot literally panic. Nor can a monitor contain a desktop (although it may sit on one), nor can a program possibly open a window without some sophisticated robotic equipment attached to the computer. For that matter, a hard drive cannot possibly contain a file or a folder (unless it's a very large hard drive and you've cut a slot in it to stuff the paperwork in), trees cannot grow inside any program, and no one, certain not my computer, can pull itself up by its own bootstraps. My computer isn't even wearing boots!
If you ask any given tech support person what the most stupid kind of errors are, it's misunderstanding a metaphor, IE, trying to click a mouse on the screen (click on the button), opening a physical window when asked to open a virtual one, trying to save something to a physical file (and then put it in a filing cabinet), photocopying floppy disks, stuff like that.
The metaphors are to make the idea clear to people that already know what it is. If you place metaphors to people with different backgrounds, they're completely misplaced.
Aiming for most people, including noobs, thus totally removes the option of making anything clearer with a metaphor. Having your computer panic gives me the idea that it's about to rip it's hair out and run frantically around the room (the physical computer box). An oops seems like something that's correctable, if I oopsed on a piece of paper while writing, I can white it out and try again. If/when the Linux kernel oops, it's pretty much dead.
Calling each time the OS goes down a computer crash gives a problem in finding a term for a REAL crash. I've had numerous counts where I had a harddisk that was crashed (physically) and I was given the advice to reinstall windows. The hd never contained windows, nor could it install on it because the system wouldn't recognise it. I couldn't explain to them without using very long sentences what was wrong, because somebody thought using the "crash" metaphor would be a nice idea. The computer did NOT crash if you can fix it without paying money for new parts. If you slip off road you might have a dent in your ego, but if you can get the car back on the road without much rpoblems (say, a tow truck or a second car), and then drive along without any problem, you won't refer to that as a car crash. There goes the metaphor even.
Given this, I find the argument against the use of "panic" flys in the face of general computer science practice. It is a world of metaphors, none of which make any sense if you take them literally...
The world of general computer science is why most people still look at a computer as an unreliable device that talks some alien language, only people transformed to aliens can understand.
And as far as the car goes, yes, when you make a mistake, you've made an error. Which sometimes results in a crash. "An error" to me means I select "italics" from the "Style" menu and my text turns bold. That's an error. If instead, I select "italics" and the program displays a memory dump and gets killed or quits, that's a crash. If the program doesn't keep running, it's more serious than simply an error. I don't think "crash" is over the top in this case, it's a perfectly appropriate metaphor for an error you can't just say "oops" but keep driving afterwards.
You can just switch the computer off, switch it back on and start again. If you car crashes you can't possibly hope to drive it in the same form again, at least not without serious undenting and possibly replacing.
Also being the unvoluntary hardware call-him-when-it-doesnt-work guy, I strongly object against using "crash" to refer to some piece of software malfunctioning. When your head screws up your thinking, you've drunk too much alcohol. When your limbs fall off, you might have crashed or died. There's quite a lot of difference between the two. If I start saying that I crashed when I drank 2 bottles of beer, everybody is going to look at me blank and take away the second bottle, with the idea that I must've had 20 beforehand.
Which synonym for "crash" do people prefer for describing situations where the kernel has to halt the machine (e.g. -- double-fault). I mean purposefully halt it (i.e. -- lock-ups do not count).
). thinking about this as a noob, guru meditation seems very weird, panic seems like something a computer can't do (you've never seen one running around frantically, now have you?). Crash might indicate the good thing, but is a little exaggerated. Your car crashes if it hits a wall. When the engine fails, it's a failure. When you make a mistake you've made an error. 