Computing terms

Computing has many specific products, tools and terms.

This section covers:

Programs and programming languages

Capitalise the first letter of computer programs and applications (including web applications, add-ins, toolbars and extensions that can be added to applications), and follow manufacturer (or owner, if open source) usage:

ChemDraw     LaTeX     MULTAN78     InDesign     PowerPoint     MacOS     GFortran

WeChat     Facebook     Gmail     WorkflowMax     MathType     EndNote X9

Sometimes these names change with time. Mac OS X became OS X and then macOS. In general, choosing the current usage and providing adequate ancillary information (eg version numbers or names), if needed, gives a good balance between consistency of appearance and accuracy.

Capitalise the first letter of programming languages:

Fortran     Java     Smalltalk     Python     Rust

Remember that sometimes (eg for compatibility reasons) a version or range of versions must be indicated. Be as specific as necessary:

Fortran 95     Python 3     Python 3.1     Python 3.5.1     Python 3.8.5

Protocols are written in lower case because they are essentially descriptions:

hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)     network news transfer protocol (NNTP)

Names of established standards are rarely written out in full, but should follow the usual rules for capitalisation of international and national standards:

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

UTF‑8 (8‑bit Unicode Transformation Format)

Note that unicode is short for universal coded character set (see Syllabic abbreviations, and is written in lower case unless in a formal title (referring to the Unicode Consortium or similar).

Some terms begin with a lower-case letter or number, and this cannot be changed because it is an important part of the name. Do not use these terms at the start of a sentence – recast the sentence if necessary:

eSATA     iPad      i686     802.11n

In formal writing, do not use a program or command name as a verb:

Contact the coordinator using Skype   not   Skype the coordinator

Use ssh to log in to the server   not   ssh into the server

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File types

Files can be referred to in several ways:

  • by description (eg Microsoft Word document)
  • by accepted abbreviation (eg PDF)
  • by file extension (eg .docx in document.docx).

Which is best depends on what is being communicated. A generic term (eg bitmap image) may not be specific enough; many bitmap image file formats exist. Giving the acronym (eg BMP, PNG) is more precise.

In general discussions, it may be best to use the description followed by the acronym on first use, unless the format is familiar to the audience:

Copy the DOCX files to the backup folder.

All the crystallographic information files (CIFs) should be checked using EnCIFer.

Treat the abbreviation in this way whether the extension is a genuine acronym or initialism (eg PDF – portable document format) or not (eg XLSX – Excel spreadsheet).

In some contexts – for example, when giving detailed instructions about commands to be typed – the file extension is a useful way to identify file types. This is because it is what would be typed in an actual command. When referring to the file extension, use lower case and the full stop. If the discussion includes code listings or examples of program output (see Code and Typing commands), consider using the same monospaced font for all file names, parts of names, output and code:

Copy the .docx files to the backup folder. Use the following command:
copy *.docx c:\backups

Copy the .bmp files to the backup folder (c:\backups). Be sure to include icons.bmp.

Did you know? Common monospaced fonts include Courier New, Consolas, Inconsolata, Source Code Pro and Lucida Console, but there are many. Find one that visually matches the main body font. This may mean using a font family that includes proportional and monospaced fonts, or experimenting with font choice and size to get a good match. Monospaced fonts often look too large when used at the same point size as the body font.

Be aware that the same file type can take different extensions (eg .jpg versus .jpeg). Make sure the reader knows precisely which files you are talking about.

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Specific computing terms

Because the computing and internet landscape evolves quickly and is very variable, style guides and manuals dealing with computing terms vary significantly. The overall trend is the same as for other words – terms often begin as 2 or more words, perhaps capitalised, and merge, and lose capitals. You may see:

Wi-Fi   or   wi-fi   or   wifi   or WiFi [use wi-fi]

Internet   or   internet [use internet]

World Wide Web   or   world wide web [use world wide web]

Within a document, always strive for consistency.

Did you know? The internet and the web (world wide web) are not the same thing. The internet is the physical network of computers and other devices. The web is just one way of distributing information over the internet. The web is based on hypertext markup language (HTML) and a protocol for sending that language back and forth, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

Other ways of transferring data around the internet include the file transfer protocol (FTP), the network news transfer protocol (NNTP), the network time protocol (NTP) and email (which can use several protocols).

Note the style and usage for these common computing terms:

  • dialog not dialogue – use dialogue except when referring to dialog boxes and similar
Enter your email address in the first dialog box.
  • disc versus disk
    • disc – compact disc, digital versatile disc
    • disk – hard disk drive, floppy disk
  • DVD – digital versatile disc (not video disc)
  • ‘e-words’
    • the most common e-words are generally set solid – check your chosen dictionary

    email     ebook     ecommerce    ezine

    • less common terms tend to retain the hyphen

    e-learning     e-journal     e-publish

  • hard disk drive – no hyphens (but solid-state drive)
  • internet – lower case
  • login, logon, logoff, logout – do not use login to mean username or password

First, log in to the system. Have you logged in? Are you logging in? [verb + preposition]

What is your login [adjective] information?
not
What is your login?

  • markup – as an adjective in a computing context, the word is set solid

Use a simple markup language to format your manuscript.

  • online, offline – in a computing context, the words are set solid

Use the online catalogue. [adjective]

The catalogue was published online. [adverb]

We put the catalogue online. [preposition]

  • program – always use program when discussing computer programs, even when the style otherwise mandates programme
  • solid-state drive – hyphen (but hard disk drive)
  • webpage, website – set solid
  • world wide web – lower case, no hyphens.
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