Re: Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk
John Paul Adrian Glaubitz:>
> On 3/18/20 11:43 AM, Justin B Rye wrote:
>>> The majority of all users is able to perform the cognitive process to
>>> that "hard disk" means "installation device" and "storage medium" here
>>> is very confusing since that normally refers to a data disk and not
>>> the system disk.
>>
>> The trouble with "hard disk" is that it refers to one particular kind
>> of hardware, and users have no reason to expect debian-installer to be
>> using the kind of metaphorical language that requires a special
>> cognitive leap in the first place; so how are they going to know that
>> it will in fact work on an SSD?
>
> Yes, why shouldn't it? Most people still call it BIOS, despite EFI being
> standard long time ago, fir example.
>
> Our cars also don't have any dashboards anymore, TVs don't have screens,
> radio isn't necessarily transmitted using "radiation" anymore and so
> on and so forth.
>
> I bet, if you do some research, you will find a large number of words
> that are being used in contexts where they don't make much sense
> anymore. Yet we keep using them for convenience purposes.
Sure, and indeed I nearly mentioned "floppy" disk. But "hard disk"
isn't a case where the new thing has taken over the old meaning;
people don't generally say "pass me the hard disk" when they mean an
SD card. And when things change, we don't *have* to change the
definitions of our words to match the new things; we don't *have* to
redefine "floppy disk" to mean "USB thumbdrive" - and indeed we
didn't. There are often alternative options.
What do you think of the options suggested so far?
>> I don't know what I'd suggest instead, but possibilities include:
>> "Install the GRUB boot loader to hardware"
>> "Install the GRUB boot loader on this system"
>> "Install the GRUB boot loader on the system disk"
>> "Install the GRUB boot loader to disk"
>> "Install the GRUB boot loader to a non-volatile storage device"
And a new suggestion:
"Install the GRUB boot loader"
> You also have to keep in mind that this needs to be translated
> into other languages. I have the impression that a lot of these
> discussions about deprecating apparently older terms revolve
> around the English language only.
Well, that's good news, isn't it? If it turns out it's only the
English version that has the problem and the translations are
futureproof, the translators won't need to do any work here.
>>> When are we going to replace "REWIND", "PAUSE", F. FWD", "PLAY" and
>>> "RECORD" on playback devices since we are no longer dealing with tapes
>>> and "re-cording" and "re-winding" does not actually reflect anymore
>>> what's happening?
>>
>> "Record" and "cord" are etymologically unconnected, so the only dead
>> metaphor in that list is "REWIND" - and why use that when you could
>> use the self-explanatory standard ideogram "⏪"?
>
> I don't think that's the case. Sony used to call their tape recorders
> "tape corder" which is why all cassette decks started with a model
> number "TC-".
Would you like to make a bet? *My* guess is that it's from "cor"
meaning "heart".
(I always assumed those were Sony tape *cassette* recorders...)
>> (Mind you, when I was first using a GNU/Linux desktop back in the
>> nineties it took me *ages* to discover that the only way of getting a
>> simple volume control knob was to pretend I was a professional DJ and
>> search for a "mixer" application. Nobody *starts* as an expert!)
>
> Exactly. Terminology doesn't necessarily have to be self-explaining
> but consistent. Don't forget that people also want to be able to
> do some Google search when they have problems and unusual terminology
> in Debian doesn't necessarily make it simpler.
That was an example where developers standardised on an unintelligible
piece of terminology and are *still* using it for no better reason
than tradition; I'm standing up and saying that *I'm* one of the
people this adversely affected, back in the days before google.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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