Talk:Number cruncher

Proposed deletion.

 * Weak keep - I'm not going to stand in the way of consensus to delete this article if others feel strongly about it - but I think that on balance we should err on the side of keeping it. The article itself is somewhat incorrect in calling the term "slang".  It's more properly "jargon" and - as we all know - jargon turns into vocabulary at an alarming rate in the computing world.  There really isn't any other word that adequately describes a computer that is optimized for bulk numerical operations - or for the tasks that it commonly performs ("Number crunching").  I doubt there is an experienced, english-speaking, computer programmer out there who doesn't understand and use this term on a regular basis.  Hence, I firmly believe that we need an article on this subject...just not THIS horrible article!  IMHO, we should kick the Wikipedia computing project into getting in here and fixing it ASAP rather than deleting it.  If we do delete it, then I do not believe that should be considered a precedent for deleting any future attempt at recreating it with improved content.  SteveBaker (talk) 13:39, 15 November 2010 (UTC)


 * It's just a prod, not an AfD nomination. If we don't do anything the article will be deleted, and it will be without prejudice against recreation. Removing the prod might be a bad idea because then there will be an AfD which it might not survive, and later recreation might be affected by this. Hans Adler 13:48, 15 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, as I said, I'm not going to remove the template because I can't defend the present poor state of the article (hence Weak keep). My main concern was in the nomination: "Wikipedia is not a dictionary of slang terms. This article provides unsourced definitions of this term and nothing else. Has been an unsourced stub for over four years.".


 * "Number cruncher" isn't a "slang" term (despite what the article says!) - it's well established computing terminology dating back at least three decades and in regular use by millions of people. It's no more slang than 'netbook' or 'floppy disk' - both of which have articles.  A "number cruncher" as a hardware term is every bit as valid and useful terminology for a particular kind of computer as "netbook"...and "number crunching" as a software activity is as valid and common a term as "compiling" or "sorting"...both of which also have related articles.


 * However, aside from that - I certainly can't argue that this is a suitable article. If it is worthy of deletion by virtue of its content alone (and not because of its subject) - then I guess I have no grounds for opposing removal and would switch my !vote to a Weak delete.  But if someone can find the time to improve it sufficiently - then I'd strongly oppose any effort to delete it on WP:NOTDIC grounds.


 * SteveBaker (talk) 14:33, 15 November 2010 (UTC)


 * The quality of the article should not be the issue here. The issue is whether this is an appropriate WP topic. proposed deletion on WP:NOT grounds and that works for me. Doesn't matter if it is slang or not, Number cruncher is a term, not a topic. Perhaps we can move any useful information from here to Wiktionary and let it go. --Kvng (talk) 14:58, 15 November 2010 (UTC)


 * If this is not about the article quality then you should not delete. Please justify deleting "Number cruncher" (a variety of computer hardware) and not deleting (say) "floppy disk" (a variety of computer hardware).   If you're going to argue that "floppy disk" is a technical term and "number cruncher" is jargon/slang - then you're horribly wrong.  Floppy disks are properly called "flexible media diskettes" - but the term "floppy disk" - which was originally a jokey name - has become mainstream.  "Number cruncher" is the only name for this class of computing hardware - there is no other term.  So it's a perfectly reasonable technical term - not slang.  It's jargon to the same extent that words like "netbook" and "byte" and "nibble" and "bus" and...thousands of other words that we have articles about are jargon.  The point is that jargon gradually (or sometimes not-so-gradually) becomes first mainstream - then technical terms.  "Number cruncher" (and "number crunching") are well beyond that point. SteveBaker (talk) 14:07, 16 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Clearly this is not uncontroversial. I have removed WP:PROD from the article. --Kvng (talk) 17:11, 16 November 2010 (UTC)