Since its origins during the Second World War, the computer industry has grown more rapidly than any other technology in history, and this growth has spawned a wealth of new terms and manners‐of‐speaking to describe computers and the uses to which they can be put. Such terms are often referred to collectively as computerese. The thesis of Barry's entertaining book is that the use of computerese is increasingly being extended to a wealth of other subjects that are often totally unrelated to computing. Barry refers to this use (or abuse) of language as technobabble: the subject matter and the pleasingly tongue‐in‐cheek style can be judged from the introduction, which starts as follows: ‘This paper‐based, productized bookware module is designed to support the robust implementation of a friendly, context‐driven interface between the developer and the end‐user. Did you understand this sentence? If so, you are fluent in technobabble’.
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1 March 1992
Review Article|
March 01 1992
REVIEWS
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Online ISSN: 1758-7379
Print ISSN: 0022-0418
© MCB UP Limited
1992
Journal of Documentation (1992) 48 (3): 332–363.
Citation
(1992), "REVIEWS". Journal of Documentation, Vol. 48 No. 3 pp. 332–363, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026903
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