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Comment by ryanschneider | Hacker News Reader

I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen the word “localize” used to refer to spatial location and not cultural/linguistic locale. Totally makes sense but definitely threw me off when first reading the headline. :)

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not technically wrong, but "locate" would be more idiomatic here. I don't think english is the author's first language.

It's a calque from Polish, where "to locate" is "lokalizować"

I think all Latin languages as well. From "locus" meaning place.

Localization is actually the common term, frequently used in robotics and autonomous vehicles. There's a really interesting field of research here [0].

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_...

It might be a common term but I don't think it's the common term here.

I totally hear that. Especially if people are commenting that they were thrown off. I just wanted to make sure people knew to use this term if you're looking to learn more about the topic of this project. If anyone is looking to implement this or another method to do indoor mapping, you'll probably want to familiarize yourself with the research field of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping or SLAM.

I work at a robotics company, so we've had a perception team that manages robot localization since forever, and now that we're also internationalizing our product, there's a separate frontend team dealing with third-party localization firms to create the needed translations. :)

Yeah, _localize_ has always meant to adapt something to its location, when I've seen it used. _Locate_ means to determine the location.

Edit to add: But I can see how in a specialized field, where methods for locating an object are frequently discussed, using localization over location would be useful for describing the process of finding something, since location is also a noun referring to the place itself.

Well and in the specific context of SLAM, the business of localizing is itself an adaptive and constructive process. "Locating" is what the user does when they simply tell the robot where it is on the map. Localization is building a continuous graph of your immediate surroundings and past movement history and fitting that to what is known about the environment.

There also shades of different meanings.

'Locate' implies that you're predominately interested in the object being sought but 'localize' suggests you're more interested in the place where it is/was. I think localize can also be less-than-exact if it rules out some plausible locations, but it seems odd to partially 'locate' something.

It's used a lot in neurology/neuroscience for the process of identifying where (e.g.) a tumor is or the brain structures on which a particular behavior or process depend.

I'm pretty sure it's actually wrong usage, and should be replaced with "Locate" in this context.

"Localize" has various meanings, but in a physical location sense is to restrict something to a particular area, e.g. "We successfully localized the fire to the Johnson farm so no other farms were damaged.".

I can't see a definition that is equivalent to "locate" or "find".

A better title would be either:

Locate your cat at home using...

Domestic Feline location using...

Depending on the level of techno-mumbo-jumbo the author is looking for.

I don't know what's idiomatic here as English is not my first language, but according to my dictionary "localize" can also mean "to find the position of something"

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/localize

Maybe it's British vs American English?

I looked at Merriam-Webster online, the snippet Google pulls from the OED and the Mac dictionary app which uses the New American Oxford.

"Locate" would lead to less confusion among readers. It unanimously has the right definition, and is a simpler word.

I think one of the reasons that one is not used because usages like "Simultaneous Location And Mapping" (instead of the "Simultaneous Localization And Mapping" that SLAM stands for) would read a bit strange... "location" is more commonly used to mean "the place" and not "the act of finding the place".

Aircraft guidance systems have localizers, too.

It’s not wrong, and I would encourage the author to leave it as it is.

...which, funnily enough, don't tell you where you are. :)

In Polish locating something is "lokalizowanie", I guess that's why the word "localize" was used.

I was thinking that it would localize cat (unix command) somehow.

That's already been done to a great extent:

  $ LANG=ca_ES.UTF-8 cat asldkj
  cat: asldkj: El fitxer o directori no existeix
  $ LANG=ca_ES.UTF-8 cat --help
  Forma d’ús: cat [OPCIÓ]… [FITXER]…
  Escriu la concatenació de tots els FITXERs a la sortida estàndard.
  
  Sense cap FITXER, o quan FITXER és «-», llegeix l’entrada estàndard.
  
  [...]

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