4 ms·

Perhaps then "Preview/Beta online service" should be part of the Headline/title.

sophacles 4y ago
Perhaps reading the article is a useful way to get information? If the headline contained everything everyone would conceivably want to know, it would be the article. It's not like the headline was misleading: "a new $tool" is a common phrase for software in alpha and beta stages.
- stragies 4y ago
  So, to you, "Tool" or "Language" do NOT imply that you can use it independently of a specific online service? I mean, I agree, that "new" is marketing speak for "alpha/beta", but -to me- there is a difference between a "language/tool" and a "Single-Vendor-WebService". Or is my understanding of the semantics of the English language outdated?
  - sophacles 4y ago
    Not even outdated - just incorrect. There have been proprietary tools longer than there have been computers, it's the point of patents - grant a monopoly on your proprietary tool for X years in exchange for making it's workings public knowledge. Even patents aside, why wouldn't this D2 thing qualify as: COMPUTING a piece of software that carries out a particular function, typically creating or modifying another program. (source: google "define tool") While it isn't creating or modifying a program, I'd consider "parsing text in a specific syntax to create a diagram" more like a compiler than a site that just provides information or crud sites with some forms. I'm not entirely certain how where it runs affects it's tool status, but it certainly is a consideration to be made while evaluating it for any particular use case. (also from define tool: a thing used in an occupation or pursuit. and depending on where you stand on the "thingness" of software may also apply here, but that feels diversionary) I can think of quite a few single vendor languages - various IBM mainframe languages like JCL, K, matlab, multiple .Net and MS languages until recently, applescript, etc.

Perhaps reading the article is a useful way to get information? If the headline contained everything everyone would conceivably want to know, it would be the article. It's not like the headline was misleading: "a new $tool" is a common phrase for software in alpha and beta stages.

stragies 4y ago
So, to you, "Tool" or "Language" do NOT imply that you can use it independently of a specific online service? I mean, I agree, that "new" is marketing speak for "alpha/beta", but -to me- there is a difference between a "language/tool" and a "Single-Vendor-WebService". Or is my understanding of the semantics of the English language outdated?
- sophacles 4y ago
  Not even outdated - just incorrect. There have been proprietary tools longer than there have been computers, it's the point of patents - grant a monopoly on your proprietary tool for X years in exchange for making it's workings public knowledge. Even patents aside, why wouldn't this D2 thing qualify as: COMPUTING a piece of software that carries out a particular function, typically creating or modifying another program. (source: google "define tool") While it isn't creating or modifying a program, I'd consider "parsing text in a specific syntax to create a diagram" more like a compiler than a site that just provides information or crud sites with some forms. I'm not entirely certain how where it runs affects it's tool status, but it certainly is a consideration to be made while evaluating it for any particular use case. (also from define tool: a thing used in an occupation or pursuit. and depending on where you stand on the "thingness" of software may also apply here, but that feels diversionary) I can think of quite a few single vendor languages - various IBM mainframe languages like JCL, K, matlab, multiple .Net and MS languages until recently, applescript, etc.