A Technical Dictionary That Fits the Definition of User-Friendly

Everybody talks about how Amazon has killed the American bookstore, how Facebook is isolating our children, how tiny changes in Google's search algorithms can destroy small businesses. But Wikipedia has left some damage in its wake, too.

There was the Encyclopedia Britannica, of course, which ceased printed publication in 2010. But there was another, less visible casualty: the Computer Desktop Encyclopedia (C.D.E.).

It's an online dictionary of 25,000 computer and consumer electronics terms, written over 30 years by Alan Freedman, his wife, Irma Morrison, and occasional part-timers. Until about eight years ago, the C.D.E. served as the built-in computer dictionary for 20 technology-related Web sites. (They used their own names for it: TechEncyclopedia, ChannelWeb Encyclopedia, ZDNet Dictionary, and so on.) Today, PCMag.com is the only tech site that still builds in the C.D.E. (FreeDictionary and YourDictionary.com also incorporate it. )

Mr. Freedman, a corporate computer trainer for many years, has therefore taken the only logical path: He's now made the C.D.E. free online to all, at computerlanguage.com. And he challenged me to compare his definitions with its rivals.

One thing is for sure: There's something to be said for having a single editor. Wikipedia entries, of course, are written collaboratively by strangers with different agendas and writing styles. And its technology definitions tend to be by engineers, for engineers.

Here, for example, is Wikipedia's opening paragraph for its 23-page entry on “SATA”:

Serial ATA (SATA) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. Serial ATA replaces the older AT Attachment standard (ATA; later referred to as Parallel ATA or PATA), offering several advantages over the older interface: reduced cable size and cost (seven conductors instead of 40), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signalling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol.

Host bus adapters? Really? And should the opening paragraph really dive immediately into a description of its predecessor?

Rival Webopedia is similarly technical. It doesn't even have an entry for “SA TA” - only for “Serial ATA” - and it starts like this:

Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link - a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs. In contrast, IDE cables used in parallel ATA systems are bulkier than Serial ATA cables and can on ly extend to 40cm long, while Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter.

And here's ComputerLanguage.com's opener:

(Serial ATA). The standard hardware interface for connecting hard disks and CD/DVD drives to the computer. Introduced in 2002, almost all computers use SATA drives.

Let's try another one, for a buzzword that's always bugged me: “form factor.” Wikipedia doesn't have a page for it, only a “disambiguation” page. It begins:

A Form factor may refer to:

(If you're wondering what “disambiguation” means, by the way, here's Wikipedia's helpful breakdown: In computational linguistics, word-sense disambiguation (WSD) is an open problem of natural language processing, which governs the process of identifying which sense of a word (i.e. meaning) is used in a sentence, when the word has multiple meanings. The solution to this problem impacts other computer-related writing, such as discourse, improving relevance of search engines, anaphora resolution, coherence, inference et cetera. “Et cetera?” Really?)

Here's Webopedia's entire definition: “The physical size and shape of a device. It is often us ed to describe the size of circuit boards.” Circuit boards!? I've actually never heard “form factor” used to describe circuit boards; more often, it's cameras, phones, speakers and so on.

And now, here's ComputerLanguage.com on “form factor:”

form factor. The physical size of a device as measured by outside dimensions. With regard to a disk drive, the form factor is the diameter of the platters, such as 2.5″, 3.5″ and 5.25″, not size in terms of storage capacity. See footprint.

Let's try one more. Suppose you wanted to know what 4K television is all about. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for it at all â€" only a listing for “4K resolution” (again with the engineering slant):

S everal 4K resolutions exist in digital television and digital cinematography. The term 4K refers to the horizontal resolution (instead of the vertical) of these formats, which are all on the order of 4,000 pixels.

Webopedia, whose definitions tend to be ancient, has no listing at all for “4K TV” or “4K television.”

ComputerLanguage.com does:

4K TV. A TV set with 2,160 lines of resolution. Although TVs emerged in the 2013 time frame, cable and satellite TV providers are unlikely to transmit 4K content before 2016. Also called “Ultra HD” (UHDTV) and “4K x 2K,” a 4K TV scales 1080p content to 2160p resolution, which provides visual improvements especially noticeable on 60″ screens and above.

Frankly, ComputerLanguage.com's homemade-looking Web design cries out for modernization. And the pricing for its various app incarnations is bewildering: It's available for Windows ($5 a year), iPhone ($3, branded by PCMag.com) and Android (free).

But it's clear that for anyone who's not an engineer, its definitions are far superior to the crowdsourced, sprawling, digital haystack of Wikipedia. And they're far more current than what you find on Webopedia.

Yes, it's true. ComputerLanguage.com is the very definition of concise, a user-friendly, up-to-date technical dictionary.