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A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

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Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#21

Post by jraph »

EagnaIonat wrote: post #8
jraph wrote: post #5

I suppose the Latin phrasing needs to be double-checked, but it's nice to have what we ought to aim expressed to concisely (even in English). I guess the Latin makes it sound more serious and authoritative (but also more cryptic, so it's a double-edged sword to manipulate with caution). May it help spread the spirit, with which I completely agree. Kudos for aiming this.

Getting into a rhetoric style, rule of thirds can help. So something like: Custodi usorem, custodi data, custodi veritatem.

Maybe this?

Usorēs, data et veritas primum

Users, data and truth first.

And actually first in the sentence structure (in both languages).

(edit: I had initially used prima - neutral plural nominative for primus (adj.) to target the three subjects, which I don't know if it's right, but using the adverb feels better. I don't do Latin though)

Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#22

Post by baq »

bambax wrote: post #7

As a user, I want to be enabled / to be able to do more things with a piece of software than what I could do without it. I do NOT want to be "protected".

There's a reason some buttons are behind glass and some switches have guards you have to unlock first. You say you don't, but you can't not qualify when, otherwise you're simply wrong.

Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#23

Post by jraph »

baq wrote: post #22
bambax wrote: post #7

As a user, I want to be enabled / to be able to do more things with a piece of software than what I could do without it. I do NOT want to be "protected".

There's a reason some buttons are behind glass and some switches have guards you have to unlock first. You say you don't, but you can't not qualify when, otherwise you're simply wrong.

As long as you can reach the buttons by yourself and don't need to ask big tech's permission, I fully agree that having safeguards for potentially dangerous buttons is a good thing.

Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#24

Post by Waterluvian »

spiffyk wrote: post #9

Honestly, I like the motto in English: "Protect the user, the data, the truth." Programming—as opposed to medicine—has very little in terms of a relation to Latin (which shows clearly when TFA had to use ChatGPT to translate the motto to it), and a lot to English. It may not sound as cool , but the message is clear and I can relate to that.

I think it sounds cooler, actually. But I wholly agree with the assessment that there’s really no Latin connection and shouldn’t be forced. Latin isn’t a font! …

Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#25

Post by globnomulous »

This is horrible, horrible spaghetti Latin.

"Tueor" in this context sounds very weird to me -- more "oversee" or "watch" than "protect." 'custos' is, to my ear, the idiomatic noun for "protector," and that noun sounds appropriate in this context. "defendo" (a verb meaning 'defend') would probably be more appropriate if we want to insist on using a verb.

"Usor" is nonsense -- literal, actual nonsense. It isn't Latin. To my ear it sounds like a misspelling/solecism for "uxor," which means "wife." It sounds kind of like an Aristophanic immigrant/hick character's mangled Greek translated into mispronounced Latin.

"Data" means "gifts," literally "things given." It has no connection whatsoever to 'data' in our sense.

"Veritatem" sounds almost liturgical (or Neo-Latin?), completely out of place, given the intended sense. That is, it sounds like a metaphysical or religious concept -- not something "factual" or "correct," as seems to be the intended sense, but rather "the goddess truth." One does not protect (or keep watch over) a goddess. Or one does at one's great peril (in myth at least), unless one is an actual religious functionary, a priest or priestess, in which case you probably do watch over the god, just because in temples the divine objects associated with a god/goddess and venerated were often themselves called "the god/goddess."

Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#28

Post by phtrivier »

globnomulous wrote: post #25

This is horrible, horrible spaghetti Latin. "Tueor" in this context sounds very weird to me -- more "oversee" or "watch" than "protect." 'custos' is, to my ear, the idiomatic noun for "protector," and that noun sounds appropriate in this context. "defendo" (a verb meaning 'defend') would probably be more appropriate if we want to insist on using a verb. "Usor" is nonsense -- literal, actual nonsense. It isn't Latin.…

What would be the proper translation of the moto, then ?

Re: A motto for programmers: "Tuere usorem, data, veritatem"

#29

Post by pif »

jraph wrote: post #5

I suppose the Latin phrasing needs to be double-checked, but it's nice to have what we ought to aim expressed to concisely (even in English). I guess the Latin makes it sound more serious and authoritative (but also more cryptic, so it's a double-edged sword to manipulate with caution). May it help spread the spirit, with which I completely agree. Kudos for aiming this.

> I guess the Latin makes it sound more serious and authoritative

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

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