Talk:Bus (disambiguation)

The term Bus is a standard term in computer science and telecommunications, with the meaning Digital bus. May I propose that users seeking the word "Bus" be given the choice between the present term { A bus (archaically also omnibus, multibus, or autobus) is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers } and Digital bus.

--109.66.41.162 (talk) 13:11, 11 July 2010 (UTC) user= zutam

see the commonality between different usages of the word 'bus'?
I have noticed that most, if not all, uses of the word describe an item that collects together individual objects into one entity and transports them around a system with multiple collection and distribution points. The 'individual objects' may be (i) shopper or commuters, (ii)electronic states, (iii) software signals etc. The 'one entity' may be (i) passengers, (ii) address bits or switch states, (iii) commands or indicators, etc. The system may be (i) road network, (ii) CPU bus, PCI et. al, (iii) ethernet cable ... etc. The 'multiple collection and distribution points' may be (i) shopping arcade, factory ..., (ii)CPU or video card, (iii) electronic controller, printer, industrial plant .... etc.

My punctuation may not be quite up to the mark but I hope you can see the point. That omnibus, digital bus, satellite bus etc. are all the same thing. They are just using different technologies to transport different things. My thought is that when we are taliking of 'bus' in the abstract, as must be done on Wikipedia, then there is no difference between a Greyhound bus and a PCI bus.

I am a bit wary here as, in twenty years, I not not seen one indication that anyone else has seen this commonality but, to me, it is undeniable. All etymologies treat bus(vehicle), bus(computing), bus(power) etc as totally unrelated items that just happen to use the same three letter handle.

Am I seeing something that is not there or what does 'bus' actually mean? I suspect the word had an original meaning that seems to have got lost in common usage. Is there an etymolgy expert who is able to help out? Any other thoughts? kimdino (talk) 13:22, 27 June 2013 (UTC)