Author Topic: How to pronounce XOR...really?  (Read 16295 times)

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Offline hamster_nz

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #25 on: March 02, 2021, 10:40:40 pm »
OK - for the third time in my 6th decade on this planet, I have come across something that shatters my expectation that "surely, everybody does that" or whatever.

So what are the first and second?

1. Some people really can visualize things in their minds. Apparently most people. I can't. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
2. Some people stay seated to wipe, others stand. OK, that's where not having a mind's eye to visualize that is really useful.

The third?

3. Some people pronounce XOR as 'zor'. WTF?

XOR is the exclusive OR operator in C programming, yet another bitwise logical operator. And to answer your most pressing question, you pronounce XOR like “zor.” It’s the perfect evil name from bad science fiction.

Further searching reveals that the author is not unique in this.

What say you?

Forget (2), and for (3) XOR is said Ex-OR for "eXclusive OR", and anybody who says else gets the "WFT?" stare....

But (1) - Like what? People have little pictures in their head and can actually "see things in their minds eye?", and when they close their eyes they just don't see black, and maybe persistence of vision patches? WFT? That is just crazy!
Gaze not into the abyss, lest you become recognized as an abyss domain expert, and they expect you keep gazing into the damn thing.
 

Offline xrunner

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #26 on: March 02, 2021, 10:46:20 pm »
Next up will be the NOR gate.

Pronounced ...

N-OR

or

NOT-OR

or

NOR

 :-DD
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Offline T3sl4co1l

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #27 on: March 03, 2021, 01:57:56 am »
Next up will be the NOR gate.

Pronounced ...

N-OR

or

NOT-OR

or

NOR

 :-DD

Some people, you just need to,



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Offline MikeK

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #28 on: March 03, 2021, 03:04:50 am »
It's pronounced "thermometer".
 
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Offline RJSV

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #29 on: March 03, 2021, 05:09:10 am »
I thought it was pronounced:

  Ex-Whore Zon ???

(huh, what? ... Isn't this the downtown train?)
 
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Offline GlennSprigg

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #30 on: March 03, 2021, 01:21:12 pm »
No. “Z” is never pronounced as “eks”.

“Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter”. (King Lear, Act 2, Scene 2).

By the way, I always say “ex or” since it is unambiguous.

Obviously though, the 'X' is an abbreviation for the word 'Exclusive', meaning it must be 'OR'   :)
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Offline MIS42N

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #31 on: March 04, 2021, 12:44:27 am »
I don't think I have ever heard someone say xor. If discussed, IIRC they say 'exclusive or'. Not that it is a common discussion.

Such a useful instruction. Exchange a register with a memory location XOR A,B XOR B,A XOR A,B. Or two buffers at location A and B, move the pointer between them. First Mask = XOR A,B. start with pointer=A, To flip Pointer=Pointer XOR Mask. Useful for a string of compare equal  on processors that don't have a compare (e.g PIC 8-bit) using Z for result but not disturbing C (add or subtract works too, but unnecessarily alters C in the process). Out of curiosity, I looked at the last program I wrote. More than 50 XORs.

A rose by any (other) name is just as sweet.
 

Offline JohnnyMalariaTopic starter

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #32 on: March 04, 2021, 12:54:51 am »
XOR has an interest property particular when applied to images. If you XOR image A with image B and then XOR the result with image B you get back to image A. This was a useful trick in my ZX Spectrum days for some long forgotten reason.
 

Offline fourfathom

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #33 on: March 04, 2021, 03:51:32 am »
XOR has an interest property particular when applied to images. If you XOR image A with image B and then XOR the result with image B you get back to image A. This was a useful trick in my ZX Spectrum days for some long forgotten reason.

Back in 1976 someone had a patent on the XOR video display cursor. 

And as for people saying "exclusive or" instead of XOR, in the olden days ('70's - 90's) we hardware guys said XOR.  We tried like hell to save gates, so why not save syllables?
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Offline helius

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #34 on: March 04, 2021, 06:31:46 am »
That's a neat trick for a donkey.
The PowerPC instruction set architecture has
eieio ;"Enforce In-order Execution of I/O"
Supply your own animal sounds.
 

Online Siwastaja

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #35 on: March 04, 2021, 06:56:37 am »
[ksor... ahem... eksor]
 

Offline Zero999

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #36 on: March 04, 2021, 09:35:10 am »
XOR has an interest property particular when applied to images. If you XOR image A with image B and then XOR the result with image B you get back to image A. This was a useful trick in my ZX Spectrum days for some long forgotten reason.
The default text cursor in Windows is XOR.

The orignal reason was to avoid the requirment for extra hardware, or memory, just paint the cursor to any part of the screen using the XOR function and repeat when it needs to be erased, so it can be moved to another location.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2021, 11:08:34 am by Zero999 »
 

Offline tom66

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #37 on: March 04, 2021, 10:05:24 am »
Ecks-ORR
 

Offline Syntax Error

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #38 on: March 04, 2021, 10:23:50 am »
According to my language app here...
Latino.. Sh'aw
Chinese... J'aw
Zulu... [unpronouncable]
Posh English... G'aw
Aussie... Struth! [as in truth table]
Red neck... Urm?
« Last Edit: March 04, 2021, 10:27:32 am by Syntax Error »
 
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Offline Terry Bites

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #39 on: March 04, 2021, 11:24:40 am »
Surely its pronounced Chore or in Portuguese "Shishor", could be "Tennor". I just stick with Eggsaw, the official American way.
I heard that resistance can be (can be?) measured in Omms, meditate on that.
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Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #40 on: March 05, 2021, 02:41:35 am »
I pronounce it "74LS86".
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 
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Offline Bassman59

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #41 on: March 05, 2021, 11:53:03 pm »
In the phrase "XOR gate", this can be parsed as "XOR" (adjective) modifying "gate" (noun).  Of course, this is short for "exclusive-or gate".
To be pedantic, an acronym is an abbreviation that can be pronounced as a word (laser, NASA, snafu, etc.).  Not all abbreviations can be pronounced easily, and are usually pronounced as their constituent letters or letter-combinations (such as "ex or".

Oh, don't get me started on the BBC and their insanity of turning common abbreviations that are pronounced as words into mixed case. e.g., NASA -> Nasa, NATO -> Nato. And using phrases such as "Brazil covid", "Japan asteroid probe", "England man" instead of "Brazilian covid", "Japanese asteroid probe", "English man".

And their silly demand that the capital of China be pronounced "bay-zhing" instead of the proper "bay-jing." I mean, we don't spell it "Beixing."
 

Offline Bassman59

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #42 on: March 06, 2021, 12:02:55 am »
Quote from: Bassman59 on Today at 08:42:19 pm
. . .

And I live in Tuxon.

. . .

German native speaker here. You pronounse zat
>[tʌksˈɔn], right? :-DD

The letter X may be pronounced in three ways in the English language: [gs], [ks] and even [z]. So, a person who doesn't know the origin "exclusive or" might settle on [z], as in xylophone.
So - who wants to say [ˈɪksˈoɾ]?  ;)


In English it's pronounced "Too-Sawn." It's easy to spot the telemarketer from overseas because they always say, "tuck-son." Our airport code is TUS, which just emphasizes the correct pronunciation.

The city name originates from the Tohono O'odham (one of the local indigenous tribes) word for "spring at the base of the black mountain."

As an aside, I took two years of German in high school. One thing that stuck with me (other than the language's propensity for concatenating words to make even longer words) is a pronunciation rule: when you see two vowels in series, you pronounce the combination as the long second vowel. A word like "piece" is pronounced "peece." Of course that rule got ported to English which uses it for words of Germanic origin, but other words fail: "peace" is also pronounced "peece" and not "payce."

So as a first-order pronunciation rule it's good.
 

Offline Bassman59

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #43 on: March 06, 2021, 12:07:52 am »
Funny....

First of all, XOR is not a word by itself like Xerox or Xylophone.

XOR is an acronym or "label" depicting a logic function..... even the word OR in this context is not just a plain english word.  It is a label for another logic function.
Since it's not a word, you pronounce it in pieces that make up the acronym.

Just like the acronym SOP is not pronounced "sohp".. but rather S-Oh-P.  This is pronounced ecks-OR
There are many other symbols that are pronounced differently... some aren't even in the english dictionary.  The capital omega greek letter is pronounced "Ohm(s)".  Or greek capital Sigma is not a "sideways-M"... it's "Sum"  How da heck do you get Ohm, or Sum from a squiggly symbol?... it's a symbol.
Another example: @ = "at" - from shorthand...
There are many other acronyms and symbols.  How about Xtal... is it eckstal?... nope... it's crystal... how about  PNP... try to pronounce that like it's a normal word... LMAO!

So, OR, or XOR are also not normal english words...

And you pronounce it how it's supposed to be pronounced - and not like it's some sort of "english word"


"XOR" is an example of a neologism, which is a fancy term for "a word somebody made up."

It's an acronym, which is a bunch of letters which you pronounce as a word, such as laser. On the other hand, a bunch of letters that you sound out when you say it, like LCD, is an initialism.

Is LED an initialism or an acronym? Depends on whether you sound it out or pronounce it like a word! I've heard both. I prefer the initialism.

Also "LCD Display" is redundant, but LED Display is not.
 

Offline JohnnyMalariaTopic starter

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #44 on: March 06, 2021, 12:33:29 am »
And their silly demand that the capital of China be pronounced "bay-zhing" instead of the proper "bay-jing." I mean, we don't spell it "Beixing."

The Chinese don't spell it any of those ways.

北京市


Unfortunately, my forebears never could be bothered to learn how to pronounce places correctly as they stomped all over the planet.
 

Offline 16bitanalogue

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #45 on: March 07, 2021, 12:25:01 am »
I pronounce it as 'ZOR' because that is how I learned it from my professor in university and I know how it works. I even know the 'controversy' of how a multiple input XOR gate is supposed to function.
1. 1 and only 1 - output is HIGH
2. any odd inputs are high - output is HIGH

So a pox on all your delipidated ivory towers.  :blah:
 

Offline JohnnyMalariaTopic starter

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #46 on: March 07, 2021, 12:34:37 am »
I pronounce it as 'ZOR' because that is how I learned it from my professor in university and I know how it works. I even know the 'controversy' of how a multiple input XOR gate is supposed to function.
1. 1 and only 1 - output is HIGH
2. any odd inputs are high - output is HIGH

So a pox on all your delipidated ivory towers.  :blah:

Ivory towers with fat removed?
 

Offline JohnnyMalariaTopic starter

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #47 on: March 07, 2021, 01:03:58 am »
2. any odd inputs are high - output is HIGH

Well, that's just modern bullshit. I assume you are referring to cascaded XOR gates used for parity.

The X means EXCLUSIVE. One, not none, not more than one - One. Whoever first applied the term in the parity cases symbolizes the steady erosion of precise use of terminology that I see rampant in papers published by younger scientists. I suspect the same is true in T, E and (I hope not) M.

How old is your prof? I'd wager <35.
 

Offline 16bitanalogue

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #48 on: March 07, 2021, 02:44:29 am »
2. any odd inputs are high - output is HIGH

Well, that's just modern bullshit. I assume you are referring to cascaded XOR gates used for parity.

The X means EXCLUSIVE. One, not none, not more than one - One. Whoever first applied the term in the parity cases symbolizes the steady erosion of precise use of terminology that I see rampant in papers published by younger scientists. I suspect the same is true in T, E and (I hope not) M.

How old is your prof? I'd wager <35.



You could walk through the binary arithmetic of a multi-input ZOR gate with examples of both interpretations, and even look up standard IEEE 91 - you know because this is an engineering forum.
Perhaps write an angry email to the creator of Logisim on why he allows for both interpretations.
Maybe write some Verilog code?

Or continue to rant and rave over "correct" language and pronunciations from your porch rocking chair because if those are different than your own then it means someone doesn't know electronics concepts.

The absurdity.  :-DD

 

Offline MIS42N

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Re: How to pronounce XOR...really?
« Reply #49 on: March 07, 2021, 08:06:04 am »
I vote for the parity interpretation. A collection of cascaded AND gates organised in any way such that there is a single output will produce a 1 output if all inputs are 1. A collection of OR gates are the same, will produce a 1 if any input is a 1. A collection of XOR gates produces a 1 with an odd number of inputs. No arrangement of XOR gates produces a 1 if and only if one input is a 1 and all others are zero. That would be quite involved.
 


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