It’s confusing. It’s a technical spec and the wrong use can be confusing, and can cause you to discover you have the wrong part at an inconvenient time. It’s a case where “size matters”.

It used to be quite common to see a serial port wired in a B shell, sometimes with just three pins, making a DB-3.

If you were making the point that I shouldn’t care if a bird were a raven or a crow in the background of a painting, sure, that would be pedantry (unless there were some important symbolism). But this is a simple case where a modicum of accuracy can make a big difference.

It's not "smug pedantry", it's literally correct.

Already commented, on August 9th, 2016 at 7:23 am.