Re: Change templates: CD -> installation medium - proposal #2
David wrote:
> Hi readers
Hi! Thanks a lot for this alternative suggestion.
[...]
> These words "medium" & "media" are very awkward for a few reasons:
>
> 1) Contemporary use of the words is such that their "correct" use might
> be evolving. So attempting to use these words correctly is annoying and
> clumsy.
>
> 2) The majority current use of these words by the general popoulation is
> technically incorrect, so using them correctly produces a result that is
> uncomfortable for many readers and therefore might be considered poor
> or ineffective communication style. For example, most people in current
> everyday use will not understand that "medium" might refer to a computer
> file storage device.
I'd argue that there's no standards body with the jurisdiction to make
generally accepted English idioms "technically incorrect"; it's
awkward that we've ended up having to talk about "pieces of media",
but that seems to be the accepted idiom...
> 3) Technology has largely moved away from storage devices that actually use
> insertion of removable media into a reader device. These days it is much
> more likely that the user has a removable *device*, not removable *media*.
>
> For these reasons, I offer a bold suggestion:
>
> Work towards eliminating the words "media" and "medium" everywhere,
> except where they cannot be avoided.
>
> Prefer words like "installer device" or "installation device"
> wherever possible,
Oh, now that might just work (I tend to agree with MJ Ray that
"installation device" feels better somehow). And the places where it
doesn't work as well are mostly the places where we could switch to
"image".
[...]
> EXAMPLE PHRASES (taken from Justin's message)
>
> "Load installer components from installer device files"
Thinking about it again, the installer doesn't pull *components* out
of individual *files*, does it? It takes files from the installation
device filesystem and uses them as components, so we ought to be
saying something like:
"Load components from installation image"
> "Failed to copy file from installer device. Retry?"
>
> "There was a problem reading data. Please make sure you have inserted the "
> "installer device correctly. If retrying does not work, you should check the "
> "integrity of your installer device."
>
> "Detecting hardware to find drives for installer device"
>
> "Detecting hardware to find installer device"
>
> "Scanning installer device"
> "Unmounting/ejecting installer device..."
(It belatedly occurs to me that "ejecting" is a diskism; but I suppose
here it's only offered as a possibility.)
> "You may need to load additional drivers from a removable device, such as "
> "a USB stick. If you have such a device available now, insert it, and "
> "continue. Otherwise, you will be given the option to manually select some "
> "modules."
Here I'd see no reason not to keep "from removable media" where what
we're talking about is the choice of media in the floppy-or-USB sense.
I'll see if I can come up with a proper patch for this.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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