What computers do to English

What computers do to English

JAKARTA (JP): I remember listening to two library science
professors one afternoon in 1988 as they discussed whether the
correct word form was "on line", "on-line", or "online". That was
around the time when "on-line database" was becoming a buzzword
(is it "buzzword" or "buzz word"?).

Anyway, what does the word "on-line" actually mean. In case
you're curious, here are some definitions that I've found in my
on-line American Heritage Dictionary:

on-line adj. 1. Computer Science. a. Under the control of a
central computer, as in a manufacturing process or an experiment.
b. Connected to a computer network. c. Accessible via a computer
or computer network: an on-line database. 2. In progress;
ongoing: on-line editorial projects.

As expected, this dictionary doesn't recognize the word
"online", nor does Webster's New World found in Compton's
Reference Collection. Still not satisfied, I checked Random House
Unabridged Dictionary, another great on-line reference source.
The form used there was also "on-line". Therefore, "online" must
be an incorrect form, right? Wrong. Those of you who like to go
on-line know very well that America Online has been around for
several years. Go read today's computer publications, and you'll
find more and more "online" instead of "on-line".

And, just today I made a call to a friend and his secretary
took the phone. I asked her, "Ita, Pak Harry ada?" ("Is Pak Harry
in?"). Ita replied, "Pak Harry lagi on-line." Whoa! Did I miss
something? I knew Pak Harry had never had a computer network in
his office and had never been interested in the Internet. I
figured that what Ita had meant to say was "Pak Harry is on the
line".

With the flood of computer lingo so overwhelming, people
confuse "on the line" with "on-line". So, regardless of the
definitions found in the American Heritage Dictionary, the word
"on-line" now has to carry yet another meaning, "on the line".
Believe me, guys, Ita is by no means the only secretary who uses
"on-line" in lieu of "on the line".

Who's to blame? Well, computer technology develops so fast
that the language cannot keep up with it. That is why we have
words that simply didn't exist or were unacceptable before. Words
such as "uptime", "downtime", "setup", "bootup", "upload",
"download", "throughput" and "technobabble" simply didn't have
any meaning prior to the advent of computers.

Grammar handbooks also tell us that either we capitalize the
first letter of a word or we capitalize the entire word. I don't
think there has ever been a grammar handbook that tells us it is
acceptable to have more than one capital letter in one single
word. Well, some names may justifiably use two capital letters,
such as McAfee and DeLorme. But, now, browse through a computer
magazine and see what you find: CompuServe, PointCast, SyQuest,
PowerQuest, ViewSonic, NewSoft, OfficeMax. And look at the names
they have coined for their products: CardBus, NiMH, LiIon,
JavaBeans, WordPerfect, ThinkPad, DeskJet, LaserJet, ScanJet,
PaperPort, PalmPilot, OpenTrap, CorelDRAW!, CorelPHOTO-PAINT!,
and more! Luckily, Corel has decided to drop the exclamation mark
altogether from the names of their software products.

Only a couple of companies stick to the traditional rules of
writing. Intel, which stands for "Intelligent Electronics", is
fortunately not written as "IntEl". Autodesk has always been
written as "Autodesk", although their flagship product is
AutoCAD. Adobe writes their industry-standard image editing
program Photoshop, but their DTP program is written as
"PageMaker". That's because the latter was not originally their
own. Microsoft (not MicroSoft) was responsible for bringing us
ActiveX and DirectX. Just figure out what they mean!

IrDA (Infrared Data Association) is another interesting
example. Apparently because the members could not decide whether
the word is "infrared", "infra-red" or "infra red", they just
write the "r" as a small letter.

By the way, aren't we lucky that so far we've never seen this
beloved newspaper of ours print its own name as 'THe JAkartA
PoSt'. If that did ever happen, though, then it would be because
they had used that darn sticky keyboard again.

-- Zatni Arbi