Re: A possible GFDL compromise: a proposal
Etienne Gagnon <etienne.gagnon@uqam.ca> a tapoté :
> Mathieu Roy wrote:
> >>
> >>LOGICIEL: n.m. Ensemble de travaux de logique, d'analyse, de
> >>programmation, nécessaires au fonctionnement d'un ensemble de
> >>traitement de l'information <Emphasis> (opposé à matériel) </emphasis>.
> >>
> >>(Emphasis mine).
> >>
> >>A translation of the emphasized text is: (opposite to hardware).
> > Apparently you forgot to read/understand the rest of the phrase.
>
> No, I did not. Dictionaries try to enumerate all the usual meanings
> of words.
>
> When I teach my Computer Architecture course (in French, I'm in
> Montreal), I have to make a distrinction between hardware and
> software, in the first lectures. I use, the term "logiciel" to mean
> software, in the broad (yet seldom used) sense, which is indicated
> above in the definition between parentheses (i.e. not hardware).
>
> In other words, ask yourself: what is the opposite of matériel
> (hardware) in French? Yes, French defines "logiciel" as the opposite
> of hardware. There are no other terms, as far as I know. I agree
> that it is not common to attach this semantic to this word, but it is
> allowed.
>
> Please do not assume that every single word (in French, or in
> English) has a single meaning (semantics). Most words have a
> variety of meanings, that can change in a very subtle manner,
> depending on their context of use. Logiciel is such a word.
I never said the contrary. On that list, people pretend that in
English the common sense in to use software about anything on a
computer but hardware. This is not the common sense in French, at
all.
(Please refer to the Academie Française's definition that I previously
copy/paste here, which is the authority on the topic.)
> Etienne PS: Mailing-list usage policy mandates that you not CC me
> unless I ask for it.
Correct, but please would you like to set an appropriate X-Followup
header so my mailer do not put you by default in To:?
> As you seem to be a new maintainer (NM)
(What's the point? I seen many very official maintainer for a long time
having the same problem, and no one was daring telling them that they
misbehave.)
--
Mathieu Roy
Homepage:
http://yeupou.coleumes.org
Not a native english speaker:
http://stock.coleumes.org/doc.php?i=/misc-files/flawed-english
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