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I've a function that takes one or more arguments and I want to say the way to pass parameters. For instance: you can pass (maybe give?) a number and a string to that function.

What is the right verb to say what I want to say?

Thanks in advance!

Wilk

Wilk
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    Who is your audience? What is their skill level and do they understand the jargon in your field? – bib Jun 20 '13 at 12:43

1 Answers1

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The technical term for passing (as you yourself said) arguments to a function is indeed pass, i.e.

You can pass a number and a string to that function.

Another less technical, but still understood, term would be to feed

You can feed a number and a string to that function.

Yet another more generic (i.e. not related to programming) alternative would be to provide

You can provide this function with a string and a number (as arguments).

Armen Ծիրունյան
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  • If - as I infer from your question - your audience may not understand the term to pass in this context, then I would question whether they would understand argument, function, string, etc.. So either you assume they understand the jargon and use all the normal terminology, or you assume they do not understand the jargon and avoid using it at all.use – TrevorD Jun 20 '13 at 13:40
  • @TrevorD: Why would you be discussing a function with someone who doesn't know anything about programming at all? If it's a client, you shouldn't talk to them so low-level anyway, you just tell them that it's gonna look cute and that's it :) – Armen Ծիրունյան Jun 20 '13 at 13:42
  • My point exactly! So why is he asking what word to use when he already knows the jargon? And why are you suggesting using non-jargon terms such as feed and provide? – TrevorD Jun 20 '13 at 13:45
  • @TrevorD: I asked it because I'm italian and I wasn't sure if I was right or not with that term and I'm happy to know other ways to say what I meant in other contexts. So, thank you Armen ;) – Wilk Jun 20 '13 at 14:01
  • @Wilk OK. But that wasn't apparent to me from your question. It appeared to me - especially as your English seems very good - that you knew the jargon but wanted a corresponding non-jargon word. Hence my comments. – TrevorD Jun 20 '13 at 14:20
  • Three different metaphor themes here (all computer terms are metaphors, because where else could they come from?): (1) Pass is part of a Transfer metaphor X -> Y -> Z (X passes Y to Z). (2) Feed is a specialized transfer metaphor -- transferring food for consumption by the recipient (NB: this metaphor is not usually extended to a program's output, only its input). (3) And provide presupposes a need, which is an animate phenomenon (you can't provide something that isn't needed). – John Lawler Jun 20 '13 at 16:45
  • So you could use "provide" in this context if the parameters are required as the function needs them. – Sam Jun 20 '13 at 22:01