Re: floating point comparison

[Chris RL Morgan <mihalis@ix.netcom.com>]

>The problem with the word error is that, while of course everyone knows
>its denotation (certainly you don't have to go to a dictionary for that),
>all native speakers of English also very much no its connotation, which
>is bad, horrible, something-to-avoid, evil, unacceptable ... i.e. uniformly
>negative (for a feeling of this connotation have a look at the use of the
>word error by Mary Baker Eddy, who essentially uses it as a synonym for
>what other religeons call sin -- now to be fair it is not as negative as
>sin, and that was MBE's reason for arguing for using the word error instead,
>but it most assuredly is something to avoid).

I don't find this connotation that strong when I read the word in this context. Thinking about it though I am sure that is because it is used heavily in systems theory to explain feedback, so I am sure someone coming upon the word without some technical background (in my case a Mech Eng. degree) in which the word is not used to imply something "bad" would indeed pick up on those everyday connotations and get the wrong idea. This had never occurred to me before. More than ever I think the guys who invented quark property names (strangeness and charm) had the right idea :-)

Any suggestions for Ada technical terms that have unfortunate connotations?

Chris