Glossary
Why A Glossary
Every organization uses keywords, phrases, acronyms and abbreviations. Some are only used within the organization. Some are globally known terms.
In the case of common terms, there may need to be disambiguation. PCB is such an overloaded acronym, meaning different things to software, hardware, and chemical engineers.
Process Control Block
Printed Circuit Board
Polychlorinated Biphenyl
When working in a cross-functional team or organization, an internal glossary is a valuable resource. You are in control of the definitions. In-house terms are not discoverable on the web. As mentioned, some terms are overloaded in the wider world, and so a web search may lead to the wrong definition for the internal use case.
Good documentation will define terms used when first used. For a domain expert, these definitions are unnecessary; for a novice, they are essential.
In the case of this glossary it is a companion to my blog. As such, it is aimed at software engineers and hobbyists who are entering the world of embedded programming.
A ChatGPT to help build this glossary.
I can write glossary definitions for most terms I use. It takes about 10 minutes to phrase it well and find a link I like.
For a term I don't know as well, I would spend 20-30 minutes researching to get the definition. It may take longer, especially if there are competing definitions.
Having a ChatGPT to assist with research, writing, and formatting consistently makes it a minute or so of effort. The hardest part is to insert it in the glossary page alphabetically.
You may ask, "If you have an AI to create a glossary, why keep a glossary?" The answer is simple. This is still 2024, Chatbots are efficient and relatively accurate. ChatGPT's training data is two years old, the term may be newer. Chatbots sometimes create fiction, not fact. These errors are known as hallucinations. In most cases, I can spot these and correct them. I have already rejected definitions that were in the wrong subject domain, or had bad URLs and citations. And now I have added hallucination to this glossary.
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