Re: [netrexx-pipelines] LOCATE Stage name abbreviation: No

[<hp...@we...>]

Hi!

Am 26.06.2022 um 19:10 schrieb Chip Davis:
> This is a philosophical issue, not a technical one.

Now I dare do enqueue the row of famous philosophers like Sartre,
Camus, Sinatra (To Be Is To Do/To Do Is To Be/Do Be Do Be Do) ;)

> The "LOCATE" stage has been problematic since XEDIT made that
> subcommand's shortest abbreviation absolutely nothing.

Xedit has more funny details in storage what could disqualify it
as exemplary. For example the synonyms of Quit and Quick-Quit:

> QUIT        QUIT       COMMAND PQUIT
> QQUIT       QQ         COMMAND QUIT

> [...]

BTW, question to the philosopher: when you call the forward slash
an abbreviation to "absolutely nothing", may I call it _even more
absolute_ when entering numbers only will move to that line? (Make
numbers 1..9 synonyms of 'L :1' up to 'L :9'.)

> Fundamentally, such extreme abbreviations (anything less than
> three characters) fly face-first into the Cowlishaw maxim
> asserting the primacy of readability over keystrokes.

Please consider, Cowlishaw uses the term 'readability' in the
sense of perceived legibility, a somehow 'felt value' only (while
linguist measure it). His goal is "enhanced understandability"
which may be significantly (and sometimes intentionally) reduced
by using many words and long words. To grasp a topic catchwords
are mostly sufficient.

Just one example of (personal) experience, following is a short
excerpt from the firmware of an HP32E pocket calculator, emulated
by Tony Nixon's "Classic Calculator Emulator":

> 	a - 1 -> a[x]
> 	a exchange b[w]
> 	if a >= b[x]
> 		then go to $03D
> 	a + 1 -> a[x]
> 	shift right c[w]
> 	a exchange c[s]
> 	c -> a[s]

Looks nice at first glance but turned out as too tiresome to work
with. To find out how HP had implemented the Quantile function, I
translated it to shorter mnemonics what enabled me to 'read along'
twice as long per day as before. (It was still a strenuous task.)

This is why I use abbreviations if possible.

> [...]
> Simply because IBM has succumbed to pressure to allow such short
> stage abbreviations,  doesn't mean we shouldn't flag such usages
> with an "Inadvisable" warning at least.  Especially since the
> lowercase 'L' is virtually indistinguishable from the numeral '1'
> in many popular fonts.

Flag it, make it a neon red alert, but first of all, make it
possible. Please.

Best,
M.