On 2022-08-14 1:47 am, Wol wrote:
On 14/08/2022 09:03, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
OK. Does it sound better to use "nonce" for the semi-deprecated
feature as you say, or actually for the new feature? Is it clearer
than "ad-hoc"? ("nonce" is a word that I learnt today.)
Or maybe \textMark and \textEndMark? I'm not sure.
I prefer `\textMark` over 'ad-hoc' or 'nonce'. As with Jean, I've
never used the word 'nonce' before.
As an English speaker, "nonce" has been in my list of "words I know
of" pretty much forever. In my list of "words I know what they mean"
... it's still not in THAT list :-)
It's archaic, and most native speakers - like me - will have to look
it up in a dictionary.
It generally finds very narrow usage in computer science, specifically
crytography as the name for a value to be used "never more than once".
Outside of that, it is slang in some dialects and could be seen as
offensive due to negative connotations. Probably best to be avoided.
-- Aaron Hill
