Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 21:28:13 -0500 (CDT) From: Jay Nelson <noslenj@swbell.net> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> Cc: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSDCon East Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.10004112105050.1077-100000@acp.swbell.net> In-Reply-To: <200004120116.SAA09141@usr01.primenet.com>
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On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, Terry Lambert wrote: >> >In what ways is it fiendishly difficult? Many so-called grammatical >> >rules, such as to not split infinitives, are nothing but some 18th >> >century antiquarian's idea of what the language should be, not what it >> >really is. >> >> I would disagree that the notion is antiquated. Split infinitives >> create an ambiguous reference that isn't easily understood without >> back-tracking and sorting out the pointers. > >So what you're saying is, it makes your LISP code more complicated, >and you don't like that for some reason... (absolutely(right(you are))); > "You can't add too much water to a nuclear reactor..." > "You can't stare too long at a nuclear cloud..." > -- Edward Asner, Saturday Night Live > "Take my wife, please." > -- Groucho Marx > > >> Double negatives are equally as bad. "I don't have no X..." is common >> American street idiom, but says little except the speaker has some X >> -- which isn't what they generally mean. > > "I can't get no... satisfaction." > -- Mick Jagger If his biography is true, that's probably correct;) As ugly and as obnoxious as he was, that borders on unbelievable. > "I can't get no respect." > -- Rodney Dangerfield That, I don't think was true -- which explains the humor. > >> 'if [ ! "$grammer" != "$common_sense" ]; then...' is difficult to >> read, hear or comprehend. > > >Wait! That isn't "csh" syntax! Are you running "tcsh" or >something? > >Let me try it out... If you like it, I release it under the BSD license. Of course, it works about as well as a similar construct in English. There are no warranties either expressed or implied. >% What would I have if I had a ) for the each hour these threads have run? >Too many )'s. >% $ A syntax error probably -- and something equally difficult to understand. Terry, I'm hurt that you didn't feel my pain:) -- Jay To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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