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