On Tue, 24 Feb 2015 14:19:00 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

On Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:55:54 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:

On Mon, 23 Feb 2015 22:56:07 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

Not me. As far as I'm concerned, a toggle switch is one that if you do
the same thing to it each time, it reverses the setting. So a button
that if you pressed it would turn the lights on, and if you pressed it
again would turn them off, would be a toggle switch.

I believe that's called a pushbutton switch. It's most definitely not a
toggle switch since your description precludes a toggle.

Actually, in engineering, his description is *exactly* that of a toggle.

The word has more than one meaning.

Yes and no. The physical behavior he described is that of a pushbutton
switch, not a toggle switch. The electrical behavior is that of a toggle,
however. I, and everyone I know in the electronics industry, wouldn't refer
to a pushbutton switch as a toggle switch. It's universally understood that
switches change state as a result of actuation, so it's customary to
primarily refer to its physical properties when describing a switch.

YMMV, as my engineering background is in telecommunications and computer
networking, not electronics. My 20 years in electronics didn't include any
engineering, unfortunately.

But please note that I said "toggle", not "toggle switch".

I really should have indicated why I did that :-)

BTW, there are switches that look and seem to act like a momentary
contact switch (I strongly prefer that nomenclature over "pushbutton
switch"), but underneath the surface, they are actually a two position
switch with an action analogous to that of a push-button ballpoint pen.

I don't know that I agree that it's "universally understood...". I
understand that switches and pushbuttons are expected to do something,
but not that they necessarily change state (e.g., momentary contact
switches).

I don't agree with some other comments in this thread, but it's not
clear that I am the one who's right in some cases, and it's also not
clear that it's worth too much further effort. For one thing, most
people seem to manage to understand the words in their contexts.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)