On Thu, 6 Dec 2007, Ian Kelly wrote:
> As an additional point, note that "parameter" *is* primarily used in
> mathematical contexts, and its usage (a fixed value) does not
> contradict Goethe's usage, although it does not directly support it
> either.
Actually, what I spend 50% of my real life job doing is estimating
parameters in models (i.e. nonlinear programming). In articles, books,
software manuals etc., "parameters" may be boolean, real, or sets of
occurrences (for multinomial data). For the latter in particular, both
the sum of occurrences and the number of them in each category matter.
The term is used specifically and exactly and may mean any of these things.
In non-mathematical contexts, the most often I've heard the term is
military as in "the mission is within its operational parameters." In
this context, it "parameters" are clearly a set of conditions which may
be anything ("enemy is sighted") etc.
-Goethe
