Subject: Re: bug#55332: 29.0.50; Greek tutorial multiline [...] mishandled

From: Protesilaos Stavrou <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2022 08:34:35 +0300

> From: "Basil L. Contovounesios" <[email-masked]>
> Date: Mon, 16 May 2022 15:52:43 +0300
>
> Protesilaos Stavrou [2022-05-09 10:45 +0300] wrote:
>
>> [ By the way, what do you think about my choice of word for "buffer"?
>>   It is the one I had the most doubts about... ]
>
> Hm, I'm not a great judge of Greek translations of computing terms,
> because my education has all been in English.
>
> That said, αποσβεστήρας (damper / shock absorber) does not strike me as
> the intended meaning of 'buffer' in Emacs:
>
>   buffer noun [1]
>
>   1 an apparatus designed to take the shock when an object such as a
>   railway carriage or a ship hits something, especially a device using
>   springs, on a railway carriage, etc, or a cushion of rope on a ship.
>
>   2 a person or thing which protects from harm or shock, etc, or makes
>   its impact less damaging or severe.
>
> Rather, I think it should be interpreted as:
>
>   3 /computing/ a temporary storage area for data that is being
>   transmitted from the central processing unit to an output device such
>   as a printer.
>
> Thomas Moraitis' 1990 translation of K&R's The C Programming Language,
> 2nd Edition refers to a buffer as ενδιάμεση αποθήκευση (intermediate
> storage), whereas Wikipedia uses προσωρινή μνήμη (temporary memory) or
> ενδιάμεση μνήμη (intermediate memory) [2].
>
> Any of these would be fine with me, but they all lack the uniqueness and
> self-containment of αποσβεστήρας :).  In all cases we should probably
> avoid στιλβωτικό (polisher/shiner) ;).
>
> [1]: https://chambers.co.uk/search/?title=21st&query=buffer
> [2]: https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Προσωρινή_μνήμη_(υπολογιστές)

Thanks for sharing!  My choice of term was informed by what is described
(and implied) in the TUTORIAL where the "buffer" acts as a cushion: the
user's edits are not written directly to the underlying file.  Though
that also counts as an intermediate object, i.e. intermediate memory...

The other consideration is stylistic.  If we opt for the wording of
"intermediate memory" then we get verbose formulations for concepts like
the buffer list: "list of intermediate memories".  Is "intermediate
memory" countable?  Is the plural form of "memories" correct in this
context?

Remember that I do not have a background in computer science, so these
finer points are not entirely clear to me.  I am happy to edit the
tutorial in the interest of correctness.

-- 
Protesilaos Stavrou
https://protesilaos.com