English Idiom in Unix: Directory Recursively

[rusi]

On May 20, 1:48 pm, Hans Georg Schaathun <h... at schaathun.net> wrote:
> On 20 May 2011 06:55:35 GMT, Steven D'Aprano  <steve+comp.lang.pyt... at pearwood.info> wrote:
>
> :  On Thu, 19 May 2011 22:13:14 -0700, rusi wrote:
> :
> : > [I agree with you Xah that recursion is a technical word that should not
> : > be foisted onto lay users.]
> :
> :  I think that is a patronizing remark that under-estimates the
> :  intelligence of lay people and over-estimates the difficulty of
> :  understanding recursion.
>
> Could we then say that «recursion is a technical word that should
> not /unnecessarily/ be foisted onto lay users»?

Yes.
Steven is talking about the fact that the intelligent lay user may be
intelligent.
I was referring to the fact that the intelligent lay user is a lay
user. [Not my main point except to say that dragging in
alt.usage.english into a discussion of recursion seemed a tad
unnecessary and unfair]

So the ILU may understand recursion
He may not know "recursion"