Of flags and keyletters
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Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2024 10:49:42 -0500
From: Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy@dartmouth.edu>
Newsgroups: gmane.org.unix-heritage.general
Subject: Of flags and keyletters
Message-ID: <CAKH6PiV3ixuwoZ-d31JNXpQpHxAAcfpRKreUcn11msW1yjboLg@mail.gmail.com>
> why did AT&T refer to "flags" as "keyletters" in its SysV documentation?
Bureaucracies beget bureaucratese--polysyllabic obfuscation, witness
APPLICATION USAGE in place of BUGS.
One might argue that replacing "flag" by "option", thus doubling the number
of syllables, was a small step in that direction. In fact it was a
deliberate attempt to discard jargon in favor of normal English usage.
Tags: quote, ойті
Authors: ag