Re: What do you call that thingamajig

Subject: Re: What do you call that thingamajig
From: "Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 10:55:27 -0500

One of the nuns at Cardinal Stritch College taught me that anytime you have
an answer that always works for everything, you know that answer is wrong.

So I must be wrong here: Consider the audience.

Who cares what >I< call that thing? You need to know what your intended
audience calls it. Or, if your task is to educate them on terminology, what
they should call it.

Calling it the "universal interdiction symbol" is probably correct if you
are writing for people for whom it's a technical term - graphic design
types. For a general audience, that's not going to be real clear. If you
said "universal interdiction symbol" to me without also saying "do not
sign" or something, I would go "Huh?"

There is no one right thing to call it. There is also no one right thing to
call a collection of X-Y coordinate input devices.

Mike Huber, not speaking for anybody else
Mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com
Grammar and spelling are tools to be used in moderation.

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Haddock, Q.P. [SMTP:ehaddock -at- ENGAGENET -dot- COM]
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 1997 10:40 AM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: What do you call that thingamajig

>You know the dohickey I mean. The circle with the line though it. A "do
not" sign?

The "universal interdiction symbol" is how I've always known it. I have
no idea where I first heard it.

Most often though I hear it was a "red do not sign." :)

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