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An little off-topic discussion: I sometimes think use of English is a bit too silo-ed. This is talking about transformers of a mathematical nature. The same te
by Chris2048 5y ago
An little off-topic discussion: I sometimes think use of English is a bit too silo-ed.
This is talking about transformers of a mathematical nature. The same term can describe an electrical component. The word itself "trans-form-er" seems to mean "A thing that changes (the shape of?) something" - this is a very vague semantic, maybe appropriate for an abstract mathematical notion, but silly for any specific thing.
It reminds me of all the vague nouns used to name OOP objects: FooManager, FooHandler, FooController, BarContext, BarInfo, BazAdapter, BazConvertor, BazTransformer; etc etc etc.
- m12k 5y agoYeah, based on the headline I actually thought the article would be about electric power conversion for dummies. I guess both topics are on-topic for HN.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoWell, at least you didn’t think it was about robots who could turn into cars. I spend way too much time watching videos with my son these days.
- ucosty 5y agoSame, especially since the domain gave me electrical engineering vibes.
- krisrm 5y agoI remember designing plenty of "BazAdapterFactoryManager" software in my early days of software engineering. Sometimes I still have to maintain that software, and I remember quickly what regret feels like.
- Chris2048 5y agoYep. And sometimes different fiefdoms reuse the same words with slightly different meaning/conventions - consider even what an object is in Java vs smalltalk vs Javascript. Maybe we need stronger conventions of meaning?
- stult 5y agoAs a Decepticon, I couldn’t agree more
- em3rgent0rdr 5y agoIf this new AI concept dominates, we're gonna have to resort to calling transformers "coupled inductors".