[vcf-midatlantic] endearing term

Jeffrey Jonas jeffrey.scott.jonas at gmail.com
Sun Jan 12 04:20:22 EST 2020


I'm unsure a vote is required since we have essentially reached consensus.

Evan is on the mark with "logged off"
since that's a human action to end a computer session.
Human interaction is implied.

"signing off" might be a useful alternative,
borrowing from the broadcast industry (and BBS?)

"return from interrupt" or just plain return()
is a wonderful TRON-like view of life as a subroutine.
It implies that you've contributed something
or performed some service to benefit others.

"final exit" is also a good candidate,
particularly with Unix/Linux process handling
with process parent/child, process groups
and the ever-loving zombie status.
It kinda applies to actors too.

ABORT or Program termination
are just too close to euphemisms for death
(or Bladerunners' "retirement" of replicants).

ABEND means "abnormal end",
more appropriate for a tragic or unexpected end.
e.g. Robert Allen Pease abended,
causing an industry double-panic
with Jim Williams' simultaneous, umm, logging off.

"EOL" (end of line) and "EOM" (end of message)
are remnants of sync-terminals and TRON.
It's more like "over", not "over and out".

"offline"? I'm unsure about that.
My perspective as a machine operator
is that peripherals are put online/offline as needed.
When I'm offline, I'm asleep or resting and might return later,
not pining for the fjords.
Perhaps there are other contexts where it feels appropriate.

disconnected? Perhaps IRC users feel that way.

link is permanently down? Only if you're a modem.

"system shutdown" feels dehumanizing.

I'm no Andy Rooney but that's my current state of mind on the matter

-- jeff jonas


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