On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Tedd Sperling <tedd.sperl...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mar 10, 2012, at 11:09 AM, Ghodmode wrote: >> In this field, we live on a never-ending stream of meaningless phrases. Here >> are a few more examples: >> Dynamic HTML >> Object Oriented Programming >> Web 2.0 >> AJAX >> Semantic Web >> Rude Web (http://fm.no-ip.com/Auth/rudeweb.html) >> Social Network >> Progressive Enhancement >> Graceful Degredation >> Progressive Degradation >> Responsive Design >> Adaptive Design >> > > Really? > > Object Oriented Programming, AJAX, and Progressive Enhancement are not > meaningless phrases.
I guess it's a matter of perspective, but before understanding the concepts behind them... - Object Oriented Programming: I felt that this was an especially good example. Not only the name, but every underlying concept is a metaphor that requires explanation. Classes aren't the things you ditch so that you ditch when you smoke a joint behind the bleachers. Objects aren't things you can hold in your hand. Inheritance isn't something you're hoping for when your Great Uncle Bartholemew passes away. And so on... Even experienced C programmers that I asked when I was first exposed to Java said they didn't understand OO before doing a lot of reading. - AJAX: The expansion of the acronym wasn't ever in a headline, only in the explanation. So, the first thing that came to my mind was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax_%28cleaning_product%29 Even after understanding the concept, an XMLHttpRequest isn't necessarily asynchronous and the data returned isn't necessarily XML, so the name is dubious to me. - Progressive Enhancement: Sure it makes sense after you read about it, but to me the explanation was necessary for the term to have meaning. > As for the rest, I dunno, but these stood out as meaningful. Anyway, the specific meaning of the individual terms wasn't the point. In fact, I just made up at least one of them. The point was that we create catchy names for our ideas, techniques, and technologies and that they don't necessarily have to be accurate. -- Vince Aggrippino Ghodmode Development http://www.ghodmode.com > Cheers, > > tedd > > _____________________ > tedd.sperl...@gmail.com > http://sperling.com ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [css-d@lists.css-discuss.org] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/