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Subject:Re: PCMCIA cards, Internet vs. internet From:Tom Tadfor Little <tlittle -at- LANL -dot- GOV> Date:Wed, 20 Dec 1995 08:53:41 -0700
Al Rubottom writes:
|Contrary to what some posters claim, almost nobody uses
|the generic term "PC card" to refer to VGA cards, SCSI cards,
|hard disk controller cards, I/O cards, IDE cards, et al.,
|precisely because we talk about which kind of option card
|[or board] it is when it's the topic. I've never heard it used
|that way and I've been working in computers/telecom for
|15+ years. "Option cards" [or boards] is used, but it's
|perceived as stuffy and semi-archaic.
The issue is not whether "PC card" is _used_ that way, but
whether it will be _understood_ that way. Many of the millions of
computer owners who don't have laptops have never even heard
of PCMCIA. For vast numbers of people, "PC" means a computer
with the IBM-PC architecture. For them, "PC card" will mean
a card for a PC - what else could it mean for them? If your
audience is familiar with PCMCIA, then there's probably no
problem. If you audience is PC users in general, "PC card"
is an invitation to widespread total miscomprehension.
Tom Tadfor Little tlittle -at- lanl -dot- gov -or- telp -at- Rt66 -dot- com
technical writer/editor Los Alamos National Laboratory
