a curmudgeonly observation

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian Sarka
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Brian Sarka

Okay,
Maybe I've been at this longer than most and my experience has been shaped
by languages and terminology that didn't change for decades at a time but
there is one thing that bothers me enough to post about: the use of the
phrase "new up" to mean instantiate.
I thought it was kind of cute the *very* first time I heard it, but no
longer...
Anybody else bothered by slang used in the field? I know we are not working
in "Computer Science" anymore, but even "Information Technology" should
have a stable base of terminology. Save "new up" and similar perversions
for your XBox buddies and late night cracking sessions.

- Ima Curmudgeon
 
Maybe I've been at this longer than most and my experience has been shaped
by languages and terminology that didn't change for decades at a time but
there is one thing that bothers me enough to post about: the use of the
phrase "new up" to mean instantiate.
Click to expand...

Honestly, I've never heard that slang... is there any online example?
 
Brian Sarka said:
Okay,
Maybe I've been at this longer than most and my experience has been shaped
by languages and terminology that didn't change for decades at a time but
there is one thing that bothers me enough to post about: the use of the
phrase "new up" to mean instantiate.
I thought it was kind of cute the *very* first time I heard it, but no
longer...
Click to expand...
It is a bit frustrating, but minimally so. I think its use tends to stem
from instantiate being a rather daunting word, its much easier to say "new
up" than it is to risk screwing up and mispronouncing the word(atleast for
me, my vocabulary is much broader when I'm typing then when I'm talking).
Its just not a nice one to say. I personally tend to say "create" to avoid
it.

Of course, instantiate also never seems to show up in entry level books or
in any magazines, so I would imagine alot of people who use the term may be
unaware instantiate even exists.

But, on the whole, its still not as annoying as people who insist on using
u, r, 4, and 2 instead of typing out simple words, people who don't
understand capitalization, and the like(sadly, each of those are starting to
become more and more prevalent, even in techincal fields. I've even seen
some of these issues in comments).
 
It's becoming more prevalent. I've even started using the term on occasion,
because when explaining object instantiation it emphasizes the syntax, but
not just trying to be cute or trendy. I haven't ever thought much of it
until now. Anyway, here are some references so you can see where some of
the influence is coming from:

http://snowstormlife.com/blogs/bliz/default.aspx?date=2004-08-25

http://www.codeguru.com/Csharp/Csharp/cs_delegates/article.php/c4767/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/bridge.asp

http://www.wintellect.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=579

- Hesa Curmudgeon <justKidding />

Joe
 
Brian said:
Anybody else bothered by slang used in the field? I know we are not working
in "Computer Science" anymore, but even "Information Technology" should
have a stable base of terminology. Save "new up" and similar perversions
for your XBox buddies and late night cracking sessions.
Click to expand...

New up. Sound like a freaking soft drink.
Kids these days...
 
You seem to object to "new up" merely because it's cutesy, but you touch on
a very significant issue: the evolution of language. The language belongs,
we are told, to the people - but which people? Skateboarding crackerz, or
professional software developers?

The medical profession uses Latin for a reason. Not because they've got
tickets on themselves, but because it's a dead language, and therefore
doesn't drift in meaning. It grants them a precision of expression
unavailable from colloquial language, and a certainty about subsequent
interpretation of records.

To an extent this has occurred with what I term our "appropriated
vocabulary". French IT people prefer to have the manuals in English despite
consternation from L'Academie (more precisely, in the IT dialect of English)
because certain words and phrases have very specific meanings that are
obscured in translation.
 
Brian said:
Okay,
Maybe I've been at this longer than most and my experience has been
shaped by languages and terminology that didn't change for decades at
a time but there is one thing that bothers me enough to post about:
the use of the phrase "new up" to mean instantiate.
Click to expand...
[...]

It's been a while since I've worked with native English speakers, but
I'm sure they never did "new up" their objects. Probably it hasn't
reached Europe, yet ;-)

Cheers,
 
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