[Python-ideas] Off topic: 'strike a balance' - second language English

[Chris Barker]

>
> > Summary: I look at the phrase 'strike a balance' in different languages,
>
> It is interesting that you picked up on "strike a balance" which has
> been a standard English phrase for a very long time rather than the much
> more resent, (and itself a form of jargon), "dumbing down".
>
> The other point is that the use of Jargon is often as a form of
> shorthand so as to avoid excessive verbosity, (or long windedness).
>

We are (maybe) mingling two issues here --  there is an important
distinction between idiomatic expressions ("striking a balance", "dumbing
down") and technical terms (jargon).

If you want to make it easier for non-native english speakers to understand
-- minimal use of idiomatic expressions is a good idea. They really don't
serve much real purpose, other than making the prose more colorful and
friendly (to those that understand it). Sometimes a bit of brevity is
gained, but not much.

Technical jargon, on the other hand, can be very helpful for precision and
compactness.

(side note -- are all domain-specific technical term "jargon"? I tend to
see "jargon" as having a negative connotation -- specifically that it isn't
required for technical specificity. That is, "jargon" is language that is
unnecessarily domain specific)

I think it's pretty important to use the common domain specific terms in
introductory texts -- how else will folks learn them? So I make a
distinction between *using* a technical term, and *introducing* a technical
term.

In fact, in my PR on Jonathan's doc on None, I deliberately introduced the
term "Singleton" -- not because it was necessary to understand the idea at
hand, but because people are likely to encounter the term elsewhere.

-CHB


-- 

Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

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Chris.Barker at noaa.gov
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