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Assume v. Presume

Reprising this:

Black Hole said:
Oh dear. I was watching "Metal: How It Works", and the prof presenting it - a scientist - said "aluminium is three times lighter than steel".

Arrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!
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January 2024 issue of Practical Electronics (page 8):

The reason I’m waffling on about all this is that I was recently chatting with the folks at SiTime. These little scamps have just introduced their Epoch MEMS OCXOs, which are truly OCXOs for the 21st Century. These silicon-based devices – which have a frequency stability of 1 ppb and an internal oven temperature of 95°C – are claimed to be eight-times more consistent, two-times more resilient, use three-times lower power, 30-times more reliable, and 25-times smaller than their legacy quartz-based OCXO counterparts.
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What a Wally (although less Wa than a SM... probably)!
 
gomezz said:
a general purpose program such as a word processor and a dedicated app such as a music player
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Why is a word processor general purpose? It edits document files.
Why is a music player dedicated? It plays audio files.
I don't see the difference in scope.
 
I don't think there is a difference between programs and apps.
Maybe a trend started by the marketing slogan 'there's an app for that'.
Eg in the old days Windows had taskbar and programs. Nowadays it has taskbar, programs and apps for the same stuff.
 
bottletop said:
I don't think there is a difference between programs and apps.
Maybe a trend started by the marketing slogan 'there's an app for that'.
Eg in the old days Windows had taskbar and programs. Nowadays it has taskbar, programs and apps for the same stuff.
Click to expand...
Black Hole said:
To my mind, apps run on mobile devices and have a single purpose. Applications are suites of collaborating programs targetted at particular users, such as office workers or warehouse managers.
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Program (the US spelling prevailed) as a computing term is a very old one and originated when programs were (a) monolithic* and (b) batch. Computers and software were esoteric.
[* disregarding such tricks as overlays etc that were sometimes required due to hardware limitations].

App, by contrast, is a more user-centric term and thus much more aligned to today's world. I agree with BH's definitions, they sum up current usage very well.
"Suites of collaborating programs" are also sometimes referred to as systems (rightly or wrongly) eg "the accounting system".
These days such suites, or even groups of suites which interact or communicate, are very often written in different languages, may communicate by different methods (based on different concepts) and/or running on different software platforms (often on virtual machines).

MikeSh said:
I have a t-shirt printed with:
iRetired
There's a nap for that
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Love it!
 
In my mind apps are/were self-contained (while using resources in the OS they run in) blobs of code - providing both functions and UI.
But reading the above posts and thinking about it I can see that is a rather loose definition that can apply to many other computer 'functions'.

In my years building control systems there was generally a distinct split between (what we called) the program(s) which ran on the controllers and the UI, databases, etc, which ran on standard computers. Obviously data got shovelled around between all the devices. That experience isn't really helping me with this 'problem' :confused:
 
gomezz said:
I have always thought it would be better have been "Once, twice, thrice a lady!
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From the groups of (usually drunk) females that I recall singing along to this I used to think it was the last word that needed changing.

But I'm probably not allowed to think that these days.
 
gomezz said:
I have always thought it would be better have been "Once, twice, thrice a lady! :)
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Certainly more correct though not too ladylike, it does sound a bit like an STD, nobody wants thrush lice even the groups of females Mike has been hanging around with fear those.
 
Black Hole said:
To my mind, apps run on mobile devices and have a single purpose. Applications are suites of collaborating programs targetted at particular users, such as office workers or warehouse managers.
Click to expand...
Whilst I'm tempted to agree with this view,
I think it's now more complicated than that. Microsoft advertise their office suite for PC as apps (not application) from the App Store. Compatible (free) products for mobile devices are also apps. Everything appears to be an app, not an application, and certainly not a program. Programming seems to be disappearing replaced by coding (in my mind linked to decoding and Bletchley Park).
 
MikeSh said:
In my years building control systems there was generally a distinct split between (what we called) the program(s) which ran on the controllers and the UI, databases, etc, which ran on standard computers. Obviously data got shovelled around between all the devices. That experience isn't really helping me with this 'problem' :confused:
Click to expand...
If you were anything like me, you'd write a program for a control system - whether that was in assembler/machine code or something higher level (eg C). Then you'd also refer to something running on a PC ( or mainframe) as a program - never an application and definitely not an app I share your confusion with modern terminology.
 
Black Hole said:
January 2024 issue of Practical Electronics (page 8):
Click to expand...
Practical Electronics said:
are claimed to be eight-times more consistent, two-times more resilient, use three-times lower power, 30-times more reliable, and 25-times smaller than
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The current advert claiming "three shades whiter" is back to annoy me. (I've a feeling I mentioned it ages ago). What is the definition of a shade in this context? Seems completely meaningless bull :poop: to me!
 
EEPhil said:
I've a feeling I mentioned it ages ago
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Umm...
EEPhil said:
"Five times smaller" is of the same value as "three shades whiter". :poop:BS.
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EEPhil said:
Back to the 3-shades-whiter school of science:
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What we've not done is assign it a unit. IIRC so far we have the Wally (Wa) for inverse kilogram weight (not mass), and its subunit the SM (Super-Model), where 50 SM = 1 Wa; and the Peabrain for the inverse metre. We also have the BH as a measure of darkness, so shades of white ought to be some kind of inverse of that.
 
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You must be bored! I couldn't be bothered to interrupt my annoyance to open another tab to search. I just knew we'd been down this path before.
Black Hole said:
We also have the BH as a measure of darkness, so shades of white ought to be some kind of inverse of that.
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May I suggest the P (pee) based loosely on the urine colour chart, because "they" are taking it!
 
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