Backend is not a word

Backend is not a word

[ShengHuo ZHU]

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"Backend" is not a word.  RMS suggests to use "back end", while
"back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?  Opinions?

ShengHuo



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From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
To: gerd@gnu.org
Subject: Pain in the backend
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 07:57:35 -0600 (MDT)
Message-ID: <200109131357.HAA10072@aztec.santafe.edu>

Could you ask the person who maintains gnus.texi to write "back end"
as two words, not as one word "backend"?

Re: Backend is not a word

[Paul Jarc]

ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> wrote:
> "Backend" is not a word.

It is.  When I say "backend", you know what I mean.  If it doesn't
appear in dictionaries, then that's a deficiency in the dictionaries.

> RMS suggests to use "back end",

I wonder why; he didn't say.

> while "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?
> Opinions?

Any of them would be equally clear, I think.  Is "backend" any more
awkward than the others?


paul

Re: Backend is not a word

[Wes Hardaker]

>>>>> On Mon, 17 Sep 2001 17:17:42 -0400, ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> said:

ZSH> "Backend" is not a word.  RMS suggests to use "back end", while
ZSH> "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?  Opinions?

I think "backend" is a locally (to gnus) defined term.  It means
something different than the generic "back end" description

I don't think we should change everything away from "backend" to "back
end" just so that a spelling checker runs cleanly on the document with
only "gnus" added to the personal dictionary.

IMHO,
Wes

-- 
"Ninjas aren't dangerous.  They're more afraid of you than you are of them."

Re: Backend is not a word

[Russ Allbery]

Paul Jarc <prj@po.cwru.edu> writes:
> ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> wrote:

>> while "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?  Opinions?

> Any of them would be equally clear, I think.  Is "backend" any more
> awkward than the others?

I believe the gcc folks just standardized on one of these, but I forget
which one (either back end or back-end).  Probably should just use the
same one they used.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

Re: Backend is not a word

[Didier Verna]

ShengHuo ZHU wrote:

> "Backend" is not a word.  RMS suggests to use "back end", while
> "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?  Opinions?

 ,----
| From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English [gcide]:
| 
|   Word \Word\, n. [AS. word; akin to OFries. & OS. word, D. woord,
|      G. wort, Icel. or[eth], Sw. & Dan. ord, Goth. wa['u]rd,
|      OPruss. wirds, Lith. vardas a name, L. verbum a word; or
|      perhaps to Gr. "rh`twr an orator. Cf. {Verb}.]
|      [1913 Webster]
|      1. The spoken sign of a conception or an idea; an articulate
|         or vocal sound, or a combination of articulate and vocal
|         sounds, uttered by the human voice, and by custom
|         expressing an idea or ideas; a single component part of
|         human speech or language; a constituent part of a
|         sentence; a term; a vocable. ``A glutton of words.''
|         --Piers Plowman.
|         [1913 Webster]
`-----

        "backend" is very much of a written form of a "spoken sign of a
conception or an idea" to me. Whether or not specific to gnus, the fact that
it does not appear in dictionaries doesn't imply that this is not a word. Many
words do not appear in dictionaries, especially in the scientific domain.

        I don't think there's a really clean definition of the term "backend"
anywhere in the texi (it appears almost as a synonym of "method" in the first
node), but we all know what it means. Let's not be over-pedantic.

-- 
Didier Verna, didier@lrde.epita.fr, http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier

EPITA / LRDE, 14-16 rue Voltaire   Tel.+33 (1) 53 14 59 47
94276 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France   Fax.+33 (1) 44 08 01 99   didier@xemacs.org

Re: Backend is not a word

[Mats Lidell]

>>>>> Paul wrote:

Paul> It is.  When I say "backend", you know what I mean.  If it
Paul> doesn't appear in dictionaries, then that's a deficiency in the
Paul> dictionaries.

I agree. A simple search on the net gives a lot of hits for backends
quite similar to the gnus backend. Languages evolves. Backend is
becoming a compound word!?

Yours
-- 
%% Mats

Re: Backend is not a word

[Per Abrahamsen]

ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> "Backend" is not a word.  RMS suggests to use "back end", while
> "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?  Opinions?

Use the same term as the Emacs manual.  Currently, the Emacs manual
uses both "backend", "back end" and "back-end", all refering to VC
back ends.  If RMS suggests using "back end", that is probably the
term he has standardized on for the Emacs manual.

Re: Backend is not a word

[Gaute B Strokkenes]

On 17 Sep 2001, rra@stanford.edu wrote:
> Paul Jarc <prj@po.cwru.edu> writes:
>> ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> wrote:
> 
>>> while "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?
>>> Opinions?
> 
>> Any of them would be equally clear, I think.  Is "backend" any more
>> awkward than the others?
> 
> I believe the gcc folks just standardized on one of these, but I
> forget which one (either back end or back-end).  Probably should
> just use the same one they used.

IIRC they decided on "back-end" when used as an adjective, and "back
end" when used as a noun.  But you should probably search the
arvhieves on gcc.gnu.org before you take my word for that.

-- 
Big Gaute                               http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~gs234/
The fact that 47 PEOPLE are yelling and sweat is cascading
 down my SPINAL COLUMN is fairly enjoyable!!

Re: Backend is not a word

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

ShengHuo ZHU <zsh@cs.rochester.edu> writes:

> "Backend" is not a word.  RMS suggests to use "back end", while
> "back-end" is found in FOLDOC.  What should we write?  Opinions?

I think "back end" is fine.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen