From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-04-11T07:04:55+09:00
Subject: OT: OO terminology

The terminology thread reminded me of something
I'd always wondered about.

Where do we get the term "method" anyway? When
I was introduced to OO in '89, the use of this word
seemed grossly counter-intuitive to me.

It reminded me of something a prof of mine told me
about a psych study in computer usage years ago.
(His original field was psychology, not comp sci.)

In the study, they taught brand-new users some basic
computer skills like use of an editor.

But they replaced the "real" terminology with gibberish
(real English words, but hopelessly out of place).

And their interesting result was: The people taught 
gibberish seemed to learn just as readily as the others.
They would calmly spout the nonsense they had been
taught, saying, "Well, I deliberated these three lines, 
then I naturalized this paragraph here, then I..."

After all:
"What's in a buzzword? That which we call Rational Rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."


Cheers,
Hal Fulton