Re: on the fly

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM>]

Cathy Carr wrote:

>We've tended to use the adverbial phrase "on the fly" a good bit in our
>documentation at my company, as in "this feature updates your
>gobbledy-gobbledies on the fly."
>
>Do you think this phrase is in common use as computer jargon, so folks know
>what it means?  I've had varying responses from my programming pals.

Programmers submit rough drafts with "on the fly" in them all the time,
but I hesitate to use this phrase in product documentation and almost
always replace it with somewhat more standard verbiage.

For programmatic functions, I use "this feature updates your
gobbledy-gobbledies <dynamically/automatically>."

To express "on the fly" as a "do-it-yourself" operation, I
generally say, "this option allows you to create new doohickeys
<on an as-needed basis/as the need arises>.

It's not that I don't think it will be understood; it's just that
I think it's about 3 points higher on the casual scale than
contractions are.  ;-)

Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
     -- The _Guide_ is definitive.
        Reality is frequently inaccurate.

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