From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 17 13:09:48 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 74BF6106564A for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:09:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from astrodog@gmail.com) Received: from el-out-1112.google.com (el-out-1112.google.com [209.85.162.183]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 289CC8FC2E for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:09:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from astrodog@gmail.com) Received: by el-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id v27so2562907ele.12 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:09:47 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=M389Gur1PvK91PKOEHnv+KILu0EXaRrC3XZBctmTzsA=; b=rHeUMYkHIy5Xne3r4B3+m4WUmeVwTwyNVK1iSJm0LrP3B6saH0f5UF8yd9rM+GWy8FggzeD4lgulP5Ee/Cnji7j3XPutCFwHBntZ7G/BsVuP6MuvYkdCSOfsY5GB4Jov3PnCHA4WeG+skXT7lqWzXPK3JddqVgm5FNRJYU9VYPE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=jnFJp0aABvImXB2LOxwXtKgKP8Q4Lf9YuU9rMsXrxgMS1aXBjVctzZXhRPU+sRxlg98kS46mf6Y864m5A34iVtrlSdxQGhdjj7spJHlgdEeToODEo0MWRY3zUL2mdNFIul6177AY0N16rEBNFhkfbgNzK40NtV7kBK1W9tRLPQg= Received: by 10.140.133.16 with SMTP id g16mr61080rvd.231.1205757769972; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:42:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.141.68.21 with HTTP; Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:42:49 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <2fd864e0803170542p3c0ce2cscd5279c57e0cfc25@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:42:49 -0500 From: Astrodog To: fbsd_chat In-Reply-To: <47DDD5E5.4020001@daleco.biz> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <478556AD.6090400@bsdforen.de> <20080110170010.GA16567@volatile.engineering.cwru.edu> <20080111115804.T2095@klein.bigpond.com> <47DAF203.40106@emailrob.com> <47DB7009.1020606@highperformance.net> <20080315212432.45787@caamora.com.au> <47DC0756.4050304@highperformance.net> <20080316032755.GB74896@kobe.laptop> <47DDD5E5.4020001@daleco.biz> Subject: Re: on content versus presentation [ was: Re: Why the FreeBSD license will not be changing ] X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:09:48 -0000 Dear god, this is sad. To all of you attacking the rules of capitalization, spelling and grammar... These rules exist to aid in allowing others to understand what you're writing, much as style(9) exists to help make code more understandable. For example: int func() { if (blah == 2) { otherfunc(blah2); return 0; } else { return 1; } } is MUCH easier to understand than: int func() {if(blah==2){otherfunc(blah2);return 0;}else{return 1;}} Just as "I really enjoy drinking heavily then driving like Mario Andretti, Officer Smith" is much more understandable, and can be read faster than, "ireallyenjoydrinkingheavilythendrivinglikemarioandrettiofficersmith" These rules do not exist for your, personal, outgoing communication's benefit. They exist to assist people reading what others have written. I know of very few people who follow these rules when writing notes for their own use. While you can elect to ignore these rules in communication with others, doing so makes understanding things you write more difficult. These kinds of mistakes also make ambiguous sentences more likely to occur, as the building blocks of the sentence are not recognizable by others. Needless to say, fluency with these rules will not be consistent across a large group of people. However, the fact that some people do not know the rules as well as others, is no excuse for not working to make your material easier to understand. Soccer players cannot pick up the ball and run with it... even if a majority of people are not aware of the rule. If they elect to do so, they will encounter problems. I do not begrudge someone learning English for not understanding these rules or someone with a disability that prevents their use, and mistakes happen, though I certainly frown upon someone reveling in doing it incorrectly. In as far as Jonathan's point of, "not everybody read writes presents american english in teh way 'some' americans read write and present thier version of english."... The various rules of American English are not something that individuals in the population are able to alter for personal reasons. The fact that someone is unable, for whatever reason, to follow the rules of the language doesn't change the fact that they are using the language incorrectly, nor does that incorrect usage necessarily reflect negatively upon the thoughts that person is attempting to express. --- Harrison