Terminology

Use terminology correctly within Amperity documentation and the user interface.

Note

Refer to the Google Developer Documentation Style Guide: https://developers.google.com/style/ for words that are not specified here.

Amazon S3 vs. S3

Amazon S3 is the correct trademarked name for the Simple Storage Service. It is often shortened to just S3, but Amperity should use Amazon S3 as often as possible.

Amperity vs. Amperity’s

You should almost never write Amperity, or any trademarked term, as a possessive, such as “Amperity’s Stitch process is the best.” Rewrite until Amperity stands alone, such as “The best Stitch offerings are from Amperity.”

Note

This is one of the reasons why technical documentation uses a token for Amperity: |company_name|. Sure, you have to type more characters, but it also helps make sure that the company name is used correctly.

Plus, in the event of a merger or company rename–and everyone knows that will never happen–only the token requires an update.

Azure storage services

Azure, in the context of storage services like Azure Blob Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage should be used in the first instance. Microsoft does not use acronyms–for example: ABS or ADLS–but does drop “Azure” from second instances–for example: Blob Storage or Data Lake Storage. In Amperity context, “Azure storage services” is probably fine also for generic references.

blacklist / whitelist

Do not use these terms. This remains true even when a third-party chooses to use those terms to describe their software. For background, see Terminology, Power and Oppressive Language . See blocklist / allowlist.

blocklist / allowlist

Use the word-pair blocklist and allowlist to refer behaviors and processes that block or allow values to be processed by Amperity, such as a bad-values blocklist or a 360 values blocklist.

data center vs. datacenter

Use data center as a two word phrase to describe the physical locations in which essential infrastructure for cloud computing are located.

data sheet vs. datasheet

Use datasheet as a single word to describe a deliverable that contains technical information for customers about an Amperity product or scenario.

data source vs. datasource

Use data source as a two word phrase to describe upstream sources from which Amperity is configured to pull data.

data table vs. datatable

Use data table as a two word phrase as a way to generically describe the things that exist in a database: “data tables”.

Use the correct name when it is available, such as “domain table” or “customer 360 table”, but as a generic reference “data table” is fine.

dummy, dumb

Avoid using dummy and variations as a synonym for “placeholder”.

e-commerce vs. ecommerce or eCommerce

It is e-commerce. Why? Because Merriam-Webster says so. It is arbitrary otherwise.

excited

Avoid using this term to prevent potential localization issues with the meaning of this word in certain parts of the world.

filename vs. FILENAME

Probably the latter. For example, the file extension for a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is literally .xls. This should never be written literally, but instead abbreviated and in all caps, like XLS, as opposed to xls, unless you need to say the full filename and extension together, in which case you’d use some-file.xls.

master / slave

Do not use these terms. This remains true even when a third-party chooses to use those terms to describe their software. For background, see Terminology, Power and Oppressive Language . See primary / replica.

multitenant vs multi-tenant or multi tenant

It is multitenant. Why? Because.

NULL vs. Null vs. null

NULL indicates something does not have a value. In Amperity documentation use NULL. Why? Because the context of NULL in Amperity documentation is almost always a SQL context.

on-premises vs. on-premise

It is on-premises. Why? Because. The words premise and premises do not mean the same thing. The plural of premise is not premises.

When referring to the installation of computer-related hardware, software, and whatnots within the customer’s physical environment, and not, say, “the cloud”, always and without exception use the term on-premises.

Note

The use of a hyphen between on and premises in on-premises is debated in some circles, but not here at Amperity. Use the hyphen. See on-site.

on-site vs. onsite

A synonym of on-premises. Use on-premises when referring to hardware and software deployments that are not hosted in a Cloud environment, such as Amazon AWS. Use on-site for any non-on-premises situations, such as when individuals from Amperity visit a customer: “An Amperity representative visits with you on-site to discuss your on-premises deployment options.”

open source vs. open-source

Amperity prefers open source without the hyphen though technically both are correct.

primary / replica

Use the word-pair primary and replica to refer to machines in a cluster. For example, in a YARN/Spark/Hadoop cluster, a primary machine manages the cluster, which is the YARN Resource Manager, and then each replica node in the cluster is run when asked to by the primary, which is the YARN Node Manager.

Warning

Use primary / replica even when the application to which you are referring uses another term, such as how YARN refers to master and slave nodes.

replica

See primary / replica.

serial comma

See Oxford, or serial, comma.

slave

See primary / replica. Do not use this term.

Stitch vs. stitch, stitched, or stitching

You can stitch data and data can be stitched, but only Stitch is a feature within Amperity.

Use a capital “S” when referring to Stitch as a feature. Never use Stitched, or Stitch’s. Just Stitch. Rewrite your sentences to make this happen.

Any other use of stitch should have a lower-case “s” and may follow any other standard use cases.

web UI vs. web user interface vs. UI

Use web UI to describe a web user interface, generically, but use UI when referring to the web UI for a Amperity application. For example, Amperity UI.

white paper vs. whitepaper

Use white paper as a two word phrase to describe a technical article written by Amperity.