RE: Article in front of hardware or software

["Andrew Warren" <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>]

SB wrote:

> It was always my impression that when referring to a product XYZ in a
> sentence, you use the article "the".  Configure *the* XYZ Switch as
> follows...  
> 
> However, with software, you omit it. For example: Use Microsoft Word
to
> author your documentation. Then again, you could say use the XYZ
Switch
> application...  
> 
> Is there a grammatical rule for this?

Um, this isn't a hardware/software difference... What you're seeing is
the difference between proper nouns and nouns -- proper or common --
used as adjectives.

Proper nouns:

    Microsoft Word
    Google
    Mount Rushmore
    Sylvia

Nouns used as adjectives:

    The XYZ Switch
    The power cable
    The Washington Monument
    The Microsoft Word application

-Andrew

=== Andrew Warren  - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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