[Don Pearce[_3_]]

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:53:47 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:36:55 GMT, in 'rec.audio.pro',
in article Will everyone stop saying tic,
(Don Pearce) wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 12:53:41 -0400, Frank
wrote:

And could otherwise knowledgeable people please learn the difference
between disk and disc?

A disk, as in a hard disk drive (HDD) or a floppy (flexible) diskette,
is magnetic.

A disc, as in a CD (Compact Disc), DVD, or BD (Blu-ray Disc), is
optical.

In summary, if it's optical, it's disc. If it's magnetic, then it's
disk.

Thank you and have a good day!

Well, I'm going to disagree. Disk and disc are simply alternative
spellings. More specifically disk is a US and Canada-preferred
spelling of the English word disc.

If you want to distinguish between magnetic and optical discs (disks),
you need to specify.


Well, I'm going to have to disagree with you, Don.

In my view, it's more than a simple case of alternative spellings.

Computer-related terms, and indeed most technical terms, cross
national (and cultural) boundaries.

The formal (and official) definition of CD is Compact Disc, not
Compact Disk.

The formal (and official) definition of BD is Blu-ray Disc, not
Blu-ray Disk. (And the correct abbreviation is BD, not BR.)

And surely you wouldn't write, discette, would you?

I can certainly accept American English and British English spelling
differences of words such as behavior and behaviour, color and colour,
center and centre, defense and defence, to name a few obvious
examples, but technical terms and expressions, for the sake of clarity
and good communication, should not be treated this way, especially in
the case of terms that have a more or less official definition (and
particular spelling) such as Blu-ray Disc.

And as far as hard disks are concerned, I guess that we have IBM to
thank (blame?) for that.

Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, when I first became involved with
mainframe computer systems, I do know that since IBM was referring to
them as disks, that I certainly wasn't going to write reports and
memos with the spelling disc, and this despite the fact that I was
somewhat taken aback by the "disk" spelling that IBM had used in their
sales literature.

I vividly recall that every time I would read the word disk, my mind
would say, "no, the correct spelling is disc", but eventually I
trained myself to think and write disk. Sometimes, if you can't beat
them, you may as well join them.

Also, if I were to insert a Blu-ray Disc into my Blu-ray Disc player,
and were to write about it, I would write "disc" and not "disk".


I have a hard disc in my computer.

P.S. Another one that bothers me is people with camcorders who say
that they're "filming".

If they were using a film-based motion picture camera, then the term
"filming" would be appropriate, but when using a camcorder, they're
"shooting video", not "filming", at least as far as I'm concerned.

Regards,

These words transcend technical accuracy - they are cultural. I Hoover
my house with a Dyson.

d