If you ever needed a demostration that the fediverse doesn't represent the general population, here's one.
The only reason I know the term "radio button" is that
in the 1990s,
I read two books
about
Turbo Vision
and wrote a lot of code in
Turbo Pascal
with the knowledge I gained.
Amir E. Aharoni@aharoni@wikis.worldI know what "radio button" in software means without having to look it up anywhere.
Replying to @aharoni@wikis.world
And sure, modern frontend technologies like HTML and Android use the term "radio button", too, but those 1990s books about Turbo Vision actually bothered to explain WHY are they called "radio buttons": Because American cars tend to have buttons to choose the stations and when one button is pressed, the others pop.
Modern car enterntainment systems don't use those buttons, but the term survives in frontend programming.
Replying to @aharoni@wikis.world
Every couple of years I run into people with whom I have to discuss not just radio buttons, but the TERM "radio buttons" because I have to explain someone how to translate a @wikipedia user interface string or to report a bug. Yes, even people who read bug reports don't quite understand the term, and I don't blame them of course.
Like, why, why the fuck do we have a thing called "radio buttons" in the 2020s.
Replying to @aharoni@wikis.world
@aharoni Not only Americans. We had such radios in the Soviet union also.
Replying to @menelion@caneandable.social
@menelion When I lived in the Soviet Union, we didn't have a car, and I very rarely rode in cars.
Some would say that it's because most people in the Soviet Union couldn't buy cars, and some would say that it's because the Soviet Union (or at least Moscow) had very good public transit. Both things are correct.
Replying to @aharoni@wikis.world
@aharoni Wait, I didn't talk about cars, I talk about… сорри, я не знаю, как это правильно по-английски (а у вас вижу русский в профиле). В общем, я про обычные домашние трёхпрограммники и прочие приёмники типа ВЭФ, где именно что одну кнопку нажимаешь, остальные отжимаются)
Replying to @menelion@caneandable.social
@menelion а, эти, с тремя кнопками, да. Действительно. У нас такого не было, но я знаю о чём речь.
Replying to @aharoni@wikis.world
@aharoni But how would you call them? "Mutually exclusive checkable controls in form of circles with a dot inside the checked one?" 😊
Replying to @menelion@caneandable.social
@menelion I certainly wouldn't call them "radio buttons" :)
I'm not a Real Designer. I'd probably think more of function than of appearance, and I'd say something like "single-choice buttons" (or "boxes", to be closer to "check boxes", to which they are quite similar).
Replying to @aharoni@wikis.world
@aharoni Single-choice boxes… yes, sounds sane to me too, didn't think about it.