Standard set of terms for precision, accuracy, related concepts.

[Kurt Roeckx]

On Mon, Apr 24, 2017 at 12:36:17PM -0400, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> Having almost recovered from post-viral fatigue syndrome, I have
> enough energy to work now and am attempting to clear out my old
> project-related mail.  I'd like to have my decks cleared for the
> face-to-face team meeting this coming Saturday - don't know if
> I'll actually manage that but I'm giving it a mighty effort.
> 
> One of the unresolved threads that has been mouldering in my
> mailbox is Gary Miller and Achim Gratz arguing about what terms
> to use in the numerical-analysis parts of our comments and
> documentation.  I agree that it would be desirable to have
> a uniform set of terms; that area is bewildering enough without
> additional terminological confusion.
> 
> This has been sitting there unaddressed because I more or less own
> the documentation end of things and have been telling myself that I
> ought to digest that entire thread and write a glossary.  I am now
> confronting the fact that this was staggeringly unrealistic of
> me considering everything else on my plate.
> 
> So here's what I'm going to do...
> 
> Achim, you and Gary *both* get to write glossaries covering terms like
> precision, accuracy, drift, and related stuff.  Give it your best
> shot(s).  If, after a reasonable period of time, I have a glossary
> only from one of you, tha person wins and the glossary gets blessed
> and added to the official documentation.
> 
> If you both step up, I will engage the two of you in Socratic dialogue
> until we have a merged version.  Note however that I am neither
> willing nor able to allow this pricess to become an infinite time
> sink.  If I think you two are arguing in circles, I will ruthlessly
> terminate the process and bless something you may not like.

I think one of the problems is that such terms are used at many
different places. And you might need to be more specific at which
one you mean. That is, there might be variables called precision,
but not all of them mean exactly the same. A text that works for
one might be wrong for the other.

So I suggest you start by finding out where you all use such
terms.


Kurt