false friends - Is "realize" a synonym for "implement"?


Many of my colleagues use the word realize in the sense of implement (as in "software realization" or "I didn't realize this function") It looks like these are false friends in both French and German. However, the use is so widespread that I'm having doubts whether it's legitimate. A few examples:


CAN Specification, page 1:



These applications can be realized with CAN more comfortably [...]



Autosar OS specification, page 121:



The RTE realizes the service on client side by mapping the client/server call to a sender/receiver communication.



Renesas RL78 User's manual, page 269:



Channel 7 of unit 0 can be used to realize LIN-bus communication operating in combination with UART2 [...]




Answer



Understand that "realize" is being used (and perhaps slightly misused), in the above sense, to differentiate from "conceptualize". When you take a concept and make it "real" you have "realized" it.


In this sense it's probably best applied to simple algorithms and the like -- you would not say that a giant skyscraper is the realization of its blueprints.


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