[R] Terminology and canonical statistical user literature

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Lutz Prechelt wrote:

> Brian Ripley wrote (to somebody asking about "effect sizes"):
> > ...
> > Given that, I wonder if you are used to standard terminology.
> 
> Good point. But I think for many of us there is more behind that.

But you have completely missed my point. Asking for how to do X, where X 
is a word or two, without any reference or explanation as to what X is, 
will be insufficient unless completely standard jargon is used.  Jargon is 
great for concise and accurate transmission of ideas, but only if both 
sides have the same dictionary.

This is particularly important with a one-way transmission medium like 
posting to a list.

It is like the Q yesterday about the `norm of a complex number'.  That's 
not standard, but saying it was |x| told us he meant the modulus.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595