?? antonym of synchronize??
John Gunter
To all,
Do you agree that unsynchronize, rather than desynchronize, is the more
accurate antonym for synchronize as a verb? Arguments for any others?
This is a software environment, and we're trying to describe what
happens when you toggle a synchronous switch.
All opinions welcome. Thanks.
John Gunter
Bill Baldwin
John Gunter queried:
> Do you agree that unsynchronize, rather than desynchronize, is the more
> accurate antonym for synchronize as a verb? Arguments for any others?
> This is a software environment, and we're trying to describe what
> happens when you toggle a synchronous switch.
My sense is that if two watches are telling different time, they are
unsynchronized. But no one DID that to them; they just are. Now, if someone
chooses to synchronize those two watches and later regrets the action, then
the watches would have to be desynchronized. So I'm voting the opposite of
you. However, I don't think either expression would be unclear.
Another way of looking at it. Here are the nuances (to my ears) of the
following commands:
1) Unsynchronize your watches. = They may or may not be synchronized now.
We haven't checked. Now is the time to check and if they ARE synchronized,
change that.
2) Desynchronize your watches. = We know (or assume) they are currently
synchronized. Now reverse that.
--
Bill Baldwin
Southern California
Peter Moylan
John Gunter <John_...@aud.alcatel.com> wrote:
>Do you agree that unsynchronize, rather than desynchronize, is the more
>accurate antonym for synchronize as a verb? Arguments for any others?
>This is a software environment, and we're trying to describe what
>happens when you toggle a synchronous switch.
In that context, the two words have different meanings to me.
desynchronize: remove the controls that were forcing the
<whatever> to stay in synchronism. It's possible
that the <whatever> will still be synchronism after
this, but we're not enforcing it.
unsynchronize: ensure that the <whatever> is definitely
not in synchronism - that is, it's the same as
"synchronize", but in the opposite direction.
I don't know your precise application, of course, but it sounds
to me as if "desynchronize" would be the better word.
--
Peter Moylan pe...@ee.newcastle.edu.au
http://www.ee.newcastle.edu.au/users/staff/peter/Moylan.html
Larry Phillips
John Gunter wrote:
> Do you agree that unsynchronize, rather than desynchronize,
> is the more accurate antonym for synchronize as a verb?
No.
> Arguments for any others?
Not particularly, I think de-synchronize is OK.
> This is a software environment, and we're trying to describe what
> happens when you toggle a synchronous switch.
This puts a little different light on things. If two things are
synchronous, in a software environment, it implies that they interact
with one another in order to maintain synchronization. If, by 'toggling
a synchronous switch', you mean a switch that has two modes, I would
not call putting it to the opposite 'de- or un-synchronized'. I would
look for a word to describe an action of 'setting the switch to
the 'asynchronous' position. You are disabling the mechanism that
makes it synchronous, which, to me, does not necessarily imply
desynchonization (making the two parts go 'out of step').
-larry
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John Nurick
>Do you agree that unsynchronize, rather than desynchronize, is the more
>accurate antonym for synchronize as a verb? Arguments for any others?
>This is a software environment, and we're trying to describe what
>happens when you toggle a synchronous switch.
I don't know what happens when you do that. If it removes whatever was
maintaining the synchronisation so that whatever was being
synchronised may drift out of synchronisation, I'd go for
"unsynchronise". In a mechanical analogue computer, this might refer
to declutching two shafts that had been locked together.
If it involves putting the things _out of synchronisation_ (in the
analogue analogy, not just declutching the shafts but deliberately
altering the phase or speed relationship), I'd go for desynchronise.
John
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