I found myself writing the following in a bit of technical documentation:
The Trainers' and Students' clients have very little in common, both user interface-wise and code-wise.
At first, I wondered whether I should have written user-interface-wise, user interface-wise, user interface wise or user interfacewise… or some other combination. A quick Google search suggested however that the "-wise" suffix actually isn't one you can or should use on any word.
What do you suggest? I guess the easiest way out is rephrasing (e.g., not only for what concerns the user interface, but also for actual methods), but I wanted to learn whether appending "-wise" to arbitrary words is incorrect, frowned upon or merely a stylistic choice.
Best Answer
TheFreeDictionary.com gives this usage note:
The meat of this suggests that using -wise to mean with respect to is considered informal and even awkward. I suspect that pushing the boundaries as you do in the examples to include such constructions as user interface-wise makes an awkward usage even more awkward, as your own instincts seem to suggest. I generally have no problem with informal speech or writing in informal settings or for emphasis, but whenever I feel I am pushing the envelope I'll pause, think, and probably recast the sentence.