Temporary variables

Temporary variables

[Georg Bauhaus]

Recently, more and more WWW writers writing about programming
seem to prefer the phrase "temporal variable" to "temporary
variable", for exmple, in the Ada wikibook.  I don't know
English well, but I had thought (and have checked) that
"temporal" is not the same as "temporary".  It is either

(a) "temporal", the opposite of "spiritual" (that which is
not eternal like the spirit, but physical), or

(b) an adjective next to dimension as in "temporal and spatial
dimensions of the universe", or

(c) referring to temple, a word of cranial anatomy.  See the
"temporal line" in
http://www.face-and-emotion.com/dataface/physiognomy/cranium.jsp

Translations of "temporary" into the dialects of Latin
do not seem to justify "temporal" for "temporary" either.
On the contrary.  Neither do these sources, AFAICT:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/temporal
http://www.wordreference.com/enru/temporary

There is also temporal logic which does not seem to focus
on temporarily used variables but on the logic of
when things are true.

Should there be corrections made to the Ada wiki book, then?
E.g. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming/Errors


(Where does this use of "temporal" with "variable" come from?
It seems wrong, really?  Guesswork?  Mechanic use of grammar?
Or do people start checking the use of phrases with the help of
the number of occurrences of the phrase in Google search?
If so, Google might leed to an unfortunate self-fulfilling
prophecy.
(I am guilty of creating misunderstandings myself when trying
to speak English but all the more I would not want this to
be an excuse for not trying to avoid whatever mistake there is.))

Re: Temporary variables

[Jeffrey R. Carter]

Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> Recently, more and more WWW writers writing about programming
> seem to prefer the phrase "temporal variable" to "temporary
> variable", for exmple, in the Ada wikibook.  I don't know
> English well, but I had thought (and have checked) that
> "temporal" is not the same as "temporary".  It is either

I haven't encountered this, but I agree that it's probably wrong. "Temporal" in 
SW usually means "of or pertaining to time"; that's its meaning in "temporal 
logic", for example. So you might refer to a variable that holds a time-related 
value a temporal variable, but that's a stretch.

A temporary variable is also related to time: It's a variable that only exists 
for a short period of time. That is perhaps where the confusion arises.

The use in the link you posted should be "temporary".

-- 
Jeff Carter
"I'm particularly glad that these lovely children were
here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic
frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen
in this day and age."
Blazing Saddles
88

Re: Temporary variables

[Alex R. Mosteo]

Georg Bauhaus wrote:

> Recently, more and more WWW writers writing about programming
> seem to prefer the phrase "temporal variable" to "temporary
> variable", for exmple, in the Ada wikibook.  I don't know
> English well, but I had thought (and have checked) that
> "temporal" is not the same as "temporary".  It is either
> 
> (a) "temporal", the opposite of "spiritual" (that which is
> not eternal like the spirit, but physical), or
> 
> (b) an adjective next to dimension as in "temporal and spatial
> dimensions of the universe", or
> 
> (c) referring to temple, a word of cranial anatomy.  See the
> "temporal line" in
> http://www.face-and-emotion.com/dataface/physiognomy/cranium.jsp
> 
> Translations of "temporary" into the dialects of Latin
> do not seem to justify "temporal" for "temporary" either.
> On the contrary.  Neither do these sources, AFAICT:
> 
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/temporal
> http://www.wordreference.com/enru/temporary

In Spanish, "temporal" is a proper translation for "temporary". The 
authoritative source[1] lists your "temporal(en)" meaning as first one, 
while "temporary" would be the second one:

[1] http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=temporal

You have right there a false friend going around, perhaps, adding to the 
noise.

One could argue that in Spanish, "transitoria" is a more precise term (and 
indeed the first meaning /is/ "temporary"). But it is longer, and I have 
never heard it either in class or in work. "Variable temporal" is the 
standard form over here.

Google speaks:

"Variable temporal" 42.000 results.
"Variable transitoria" 72 results.

> There is also temporal logic which does not seem to focus
> on temporarily used variables but on the logic of
> when things are true.
> 
> Should there be corrections made to the Ada wiki book, then?
> E.g. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming/Errors
> 
> 
> (Where does this use of "temporal" with "variable" come from?
> It seems wrong, really?  Guesswork?  Mechanic use of grammar?
> Or do people start checking the use of phrases with the help of
> the number of occurrences of the phrase in Google search?
> If so, Google might leed to an unfortunate self-fulfilling
> prophecy.
> (I am guilty of creating misunderstandings myself when trying
> to speak English but all the more I would not want this to
> be an excuse for not trying to avoid whatever mistake there is.))

Re: Temporary variables

[Georg Bauhaus]

Thanks to you and Jeffrey Carter for confirming
and for pointers.  Not gone from Google
caches but this state should be temporary.