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Coachpotato Posted 21 years ago
Vocabulary
Metaphors- Sliders - clipboard
Hi, I know what a metaphor is, at least linguistically speaking, but I guess in this case it has nothing to do with its usual meaning. Can you help me?
' ... Once, not too long ago, metaphors were hailed as the salvation of computing.
... but here we had easy, witty metaphors to show computer functions.
... users clicked on buttons, selected icons of tools and pushed sliders. They 'cut' and 'paste' and stored information temporarily on a 'clipboard.'
(Taken from a talk on computing)
' ... Once, not too long ago, metaphors were hailed as the salvation of computing.
... but here we had easy, witty metaphors to show computer functions.
... users clicked on buttons, selected icons of tools and pushed sliders. They 'cut' and 'paste' and stored information temporarily on a 'clipboard.'
(Taken from a talk on computing)
Top answer
Computer jargon uses words which often seem (at least to me) to bear little relationship to their usual meanings. I have no idea what a metaphor in this context. I imagine a slider is the thing you put you mouse point on and slide backwards and forwards or up and down.
- Computer jargon uses words which often seem (at least to me) to bear little relationship to their usual meanings.
- I have no idea what a metaphor in this context.
- I imagine a slider is the thing you put you mouse point on and slide backwards and forwards or up and down.
- A clipboard ( portapapeles in Spanish in my version of Word) is where your computer stores what you have "cut" or "copied".
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4 Answers
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Computer jargon uses words which often seem (at least to me) to bear little relationship to their usual meanings. I have no idea what a metaphor in this context. I imagine a slider is the thing you put you mouse point on and slide backwards and forwards or up and down. A clipboard (portapapeles in Spanish in my version of Word) is where your computer stores what you have "cut" or "copied".
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I bet it has something to do with comparisons of computer functions with ordinary-life things and activitites--clipboard being one example, mouse another, desktop, and many, many, more that others in-the-know could probably list ad infinitum.
The idea that such metaphors were the salvation of the computing industry should be clear enough.
The idea that such metaphors were the salvation of the computing industry should be clear enough.
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Dear Coachpotato,
It is a most illuminating quotation.
It is a reference perhaps to the use of «icons». It was once necessary to enter commands. To enter a command is difficult. To click an icon is easy.
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I would call an icon a visual symbol, not a metaphor. Still, Goldmund could have it right, from the computer world point-of-view.
And he is certainly right about how giving commands was made so much easier (our salvation) through clicking on icons. Also, salvation and icon have religious terminology in common
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And he is certainly right about how giving commands was made so much easier (our salvation) through clicking on icons. Also, salvation and icon have religious terminology in common
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