I see the term "overwrite" often used when the term "override" should be
used. I noticed that Germans do that. After seeing many occurrences of
that, I tried at least once to tell
someone that "overwrite" is incorrect but then that person insisted it is correct. So
I sent a message to Nicolai M. Josuttis asking
if I was correct that Germans often use "overwrite" incorrectly. The
following is his response (used by permission):
Yes overwriting and overriding can mean the same
in German. One reason is that the German term
for overriding in C++ is "überschreiben" which is
the literal translation of "overwriting"
(probably caused by some historic sloppy first translation, or however foreign terms are created).
In fact, one of my books which currently gets translated
into English by a professional translation company did
contain the same mistake.
The following are my definitions of the English words "overwrite"
and "override":
- Overwrite
- To replace something with something else such that the original does not
exist
- Override
- To use something instead of something else, such that the original
continues to exist for use when not overridden