Reboot vs. Restart Windows (was: latest iconv hangs)

Mike Maxwell maxwell@umiacs.umd.edu
Sun Oct 29 17:52:00 GMT 2006


This is my last posting on this.  My suggestion is that the "reboot" 
message that appears sometimes when you update CygWin, and you have a 
CygWin process running, be changed to either "reboot Windows" or 
"restart Windows" (the latter is the preferred terminology in the 
Microsoft world, from what I have seen in other programs and at 
Microsoft's website, although I didn't see any recommendation per se).

Brian Dessent wrote:
> It would never have occured to me in a million years that "reboot" means
> anything except actually rebooting the computer.  Do people regularly
> make up arbitrary definitions for other computer terms?

Most of us don't look in the dictionary to find out what computer 
terms--or any other words--mean.  I would guesstimate that you learned 
99% of your vocabulary, computer or otherwise, without looking it up. 
So by that count, 99% of the words we know are our own arbitrary 
definitions, made up by observing how words are used, or occasionally by 
having someone tell you what a word means (and they probably learned it 
the same way).

Me, I learned "reboot" when I was operating a Cyber 170/750.  It meant 
(IIRC) lifting a little door and operating a switch, at which point the 
computer referred to the settings of a wall full of toggle switches for 
the first few instructions to follow.  I'm sure I never looked the word 
up in a dictionary.

Besides, times change, but usage changes more slowly.  When I was in the 
Navy, the term for starting up any piece of equipment, be it a boiler or 
a computer, was "fire it up."  I assure you that even in those days, no 
one lit a fire under the (analog) computer to start it, despite the 
words we used.  So it's not inconceivable in these days of Windows, 
virtual OSs, etc., that we might use the term 'reboot' to mean s.t. 
other than completely restarting the computer.

Also, remember that not everyone using CygWin is a geek, nor a native 
speaker of English.  Why not make the msg clear to non-initiates?

> And if you close all running Cygwin apps and services as recommended,

As you will have guessed from reading this far, I'm old enough that it's 
quite possible my memory is fading.  But I don't recall seeing any msg 
from the setup program telling me to close any running Cygwin apps or 
services.  That would be a good addition, I suspect.  (I'm not familiar 
with DLL programming, but wouldn't it be quite easy for setup to tell 
whether Cygwin is running before the update starts, and tell the user to 
shut it down?)

OK, I just went through the update process.  Unless I need new reading 
glasses, there really was no such recommendation.
-- 
	Mike Maxwell
	maxwell@umiacs.umd.edu

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/



More information about the Cygwin mailing list