Talk:Computer Interconnect

Use acronym or full name?

I'd prefer using 'CI' over 'Computer Interconnect' in the article (except for the heading and the first sentence). 'CI' is much more 'DEC speak' than 'Computer Interconnect', and the latter might possibly been mistaken for some unspecific conception instead of a DEC specific one.

What do you think? Vaxorcist (talk) 11:53, 8 June 2022 (CEST)

I do not have any particular preference about which form to use; feel free to use 'CI' everywhere - but make sure to say [[Computer Interconnect|CI]] everywhere, so that if we ever need to make CI a disambiguation page, we will not need to go to every page which uses [[CI]] and change it to link directly to Computer Interconnect. (Which is, by the way, the reason that I always tend to use the full, formal, name of things for their page name - there will be less chance of a future clash that way. Although that occasionally fails - as with Network Control Program - so far there have not been many cases where we had to run around and change a lot of pages when we renamed a page - as I had to for the NCP change.) If you'd like to update all pages that link to Computer Interconnect to use 'CI', the 'What links here' link on the left edge will quickly/easily show them all. Jnc (talk) 13:06, 8 June 2022 (CEST)

DEC formal names

I prefer to always use as the page title exactly DEC's full, formal name for things, as given in DEC's contemporaneous documentation (the 'gold standard' for historians in all fields; and with good reason) - in the thing's own manual, if that is available.

E.g. the SC008 - the SC008 Star Coupler User’s Guide (EK-SC008-UG-002) calls it "SCOO8 Star Coupler" - both on the title page, and in the text (e.g. Section 1.2, pg. 1-2). So SC008 CI Star Coupler is not correct.

I always try to copy the original exactly - capitalization and all. (Which occasionally causes some problems, when DEC usage changed over time. E.g. the official trademark is 'UNIBUS', but a lot of even early documentation uses 'Unibus' - the 'pdp11 handbook', 1970, uses 'Unibus', as does - most amusingly - the 'UNIBUS interface manual', in the text! :-). This pattern persisted forever in actual DEC manuals: EK-UI750-TD-001 uses 'UNIBUS', but EK-KA750-TD-002 uses 'Unibus' - e.g. pg. 1-38. Jnc (talk) 16:18, 8 June 2022 (CEST)