[slicktux]

I think the whole teaching the history of computers is a big failure at an attempt to Segway into computer organization and architecture. Nonetheless, I get what is happening. If it’s a pure Computer programming class then the goal maybe to have them understand the “basics”…like what is the hard drive vs RAM (memory allocation) or what is a transistor (Boolean logic) and what is a punch card (mnemonics and abstractions of those mnemonics to what is now just a computer programming language).

[nightpool]

(Unless you're riding a motorized vehicle, the word is segue, not Segway)

[girvo]

This is very much a tangent, but I think it's nearly certain that "segway" will end up overtaking "segue" as the predominant spelling for the word that is defined as: "to make a transition without interruption from one activity, topic, scene, or part to another"

The "mistake" happens so often, partially because "segway" is a much more straightforward spelling if one has only heard the word said aloud, that I think it will eventually become the actual way it is spelled!

[cherrybajan]

As a non native speaker, given the prevalence of spelling "segway" in corporate, this is how I thought the word was spelled, until now that is!

[nightpool]

FWIW, I did a quick search of our local slack and found 2x the the number of instances of "segue" compared to "segway". And most of the instances of "segway" (around 60%) refer to the actual device, with only a handful of mistakes (around 4). So I'm not sure that this spelling is more common in a corporate environment—maybe do a search for yourself and see!

[LargoLasskhyfv]

Hrm. I haven't even heard that so far, maybe because I rarely did meetings.

Looking it up in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segue they even warn about that!

[milesrout]

It will likely end up like many other more phonetic spellings: an indicator of ignorance, but more acceptable in America than elsewhere.

[hoseja]

English is spelled phonetically. Just not Modern English phonetically but Middle English phonetically. And then it froze into ideography because of printing press.

[gh0stcat]

This is an absurd take. We should not bend language around ignorance. There is a beauty to effort. Please take a second to explore this for yourself.

[abletonlive]

Actually it's not an absurd take at all. The absurd take is that we "should not bend language around ignorance."

That's precisely how language changes over time. Language is not a strict set of rules. It's based on understanding and consensus, so sometimes things that are "wrong" do end up being accepted.

I suggest this as a great introduction into what languages are and how they evolve over time https://www.amazon.com/Language-Families-of-World-audiobook/...

[zelphirkalt]

I am not a native speaker, but the two words do not sound even remotely the same.

How does this mistake happen so often? Can you explain people's thought process a bit? Is it just: "Something something 'seg...' ... ah I know, I will simply use another random word that starts with the same 3 letters and doesn't make sense in this phrase!"?

Also this is the first time I see it.

[roryokane]

> the two words do not sound even remotely the same

Pronounced correctly, “segue” sounds just like “Segway” – not like “seg-oo”, as you might have assumed.

[girvo]

The two words are pronounced identically.

[nightpool]

Why would you opine on the way the words are pronounced if you've never seen them before and clearly did not take the time to look them up at all?

[tomjakubowski]

Segue is borrowed from Italian, the "ue" is a diphthong like English "way" or Spanish "güey"

[milesrout]

Most mistakes remain mistakes, and do not become part of the language. The idea that mistakes generally get accepted as correct is simply untrue, which is what you are implying.

I am sure people will make the mistake, as they sometimes do today. But it is a mistake, and will likely be recognised as one.

It is likely that the language gets more cemented by automatic spelling and grammatical correction, including using AI. For example, there are a number of grammatical and spelling changes that have been cemented by American spelling/grammar checking programmes ie. by MS Word.

[abletonlive]

> The idea that mistakes generally get accepted as correct is simply untrue, which is what you are implying.

I did not imply that at all. I said sometimes, so it's not that absurd that it could happen. It does happen though, and a quick google search will give you pages of examples.

[munificent]

Write that in Old English orthography and you'll make a more consistent argument.

[chias]

Þis is án ungeswutellic andswaru. Wé ne sculon bǣgan spræce ymbe ungewitt. Þǣr is fægernes tō earfeþe. Bidd þé niman án ōþer tid tō smeagan þis sylf.

[andsoitis]

Tbh, I’m more critical of commonly confused words in English like affect and effect, or discrete and discreet.

In more forgiving of mixing up homophones, even if one of them is a registered trademark (Segway).

[irishsultan]

Aren't discrete and discreet homophones?

[girvo]

I passed no judgement for or against, merely discussed that it was likely to happen.

I suggest you yourself take a second and explore why you think being smarmy on the internet is a way of getting people to agree with you.

[Zambyte]

thyself*

[0_gravitas]

Personally, I struggled a lot in my earlier CS/Informatics education, partly because I never felt like I understood what was actually happening/how we got here, everything was just factoids in a void. When I took a gap semester between my A.S. and B.S., I finally studied/explored a bit of the history and it put a lot finally in perspective.

[barrenko]

Well, you need to come up to something like analysis to appreciate something that's seemingly simple like the number line and that's a loot of math if done only in spare time.

[SoftTalker]

> have them understand the “basics”…like what is the hard drive vs RAM (memory allocation) or what is a transistor (Boolean logic)

You must understand these things at least conceptually if you want to really understand how to write efficient programs. Maybe not at the level of how memory can electronically "remember" a 1 or a zero, or how a hard drive can magnetically do it, but at least the relative speeds e.g. register vs. cache vs. RAM vs. disk.