On Sat, 26 Jun 1999, Les Bell wrote:
> A.R. (Tom) Peters wrote:
>
> >> The Linux Professional Institute will not explicitly test on knowledge
> of
> jargon and acronyms. <<
>
> I don't think that's completely avoidable, Tom - there's bound to be some
> areas where jargon is in everyday use and someone who didn't know the
> jargon would not be able to perform system administration or support tasks
> - and hence, by definition, uncertifiable.
The keyword is: explicitly. Following my proposal, we will not ask
"what does CLI stand for". We will not even use the abbreviation "CLI".
We do expect the candidate to know what the command line interface is, and
how it is different from an X interface.
> But the other area of difficulty I perceive is with existing documentation
> such as HOW-TO's, which often use technical terminology in an inconsistent
> or confusing way. Take, for example, disk partitioning, prior to
> installation. What's a volume? A drive? A partition? How is a partition
> different from a primary partition? Is a DOS D: drive, for example, a
> partition? An extended partition? Then what's a logical drive?
I think this is a bad example: these are technical terms related to PC
architecture that are well defined. Its just that MS-Windows users never
deal with it and get confused. But overall, I see your point.
CALL: everybody from now keep an eye on the LPI test objectives if they do
not use ambiguous or unfamiliar terminology.
Furthermore, I suggest we give pointers to suggested reading. Some
possibilities:
Technical jargon dictionary:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/~suqstmbl/jargon/home.html
Acronym dictionary: http://www.newbie.net/acronyms/acronyms.html
(these haven't been updated for 2..3 years; someone knows a better place?)
ESR's Jargon files: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/
> Answers, please, on the back of an envelope to . . . But I digress. It
> strikes me that this is an area where newbies, especially, get into
> trouble, we all take a deep breath before pressing "w" in fdisk, and the
> terminological confusion isn't helping. Before releasing course materials,
> I'd need to know what the test author thinks the above terms mean.
<mode arrogance=on>
The tests will not be made for newbies. If they are still in the phase
of being confused by jargon, contradictory and obsolete HOW-TO's, then
they probably will have a difficult time doing a good job in administering
a Linux system for pay, and probably will (should?) fail the exam anyway.
</mode>
--
#>!$!%(@^%#%*(&(#@#*$^@^$##*#@&(%)@**$!(&!^(#((#&%!)%*@)(&$($$%(@#)&*!^$)^@*^@)
Tom "thriving on chaos" Peters
NL-1062 KD nr 149 tel. 31-204080204
Amsterdam e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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