...and so begins my Useful Phrases page, kind of like the Good Jargon side of Jargon. Maybe I'll have a Good Jargon page and Bad Jargon page. Or a Useful Jargon....you get the point.
Jargon is tremendously important. Can't be overstated. It signals to other parties that you already understand (supposedly) a whole bunch o' stuff, per each Jargon uttered. For the most part, in day to day life, I've seen it as a Bad Thing...it seems to have more drawbacks than benefits in what I've witnessed. Specifically, when switching back and forth between different programmer cultures (Windows vs. Linux, VB vs Java, etc), it is a major hindrance and causes more confusion than necessary. Often it seems Microsoft has deliberately adopted its own terms for Jargon that would otherwise be common between the two camps.
But I'm trying to adopt a more positive outlook on the matter. In either case, Jargon is Very Helpful when it comes to Documentation, in particular, making documentation Brief.
The other great benefit to Jargon is in exposing the genealogy of concepts. Much Jargon in programming is from upper level Mathematics, or Electrical Engineering.
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