Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 02:09:41 -0700 From: David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU> To: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> Cc: "Crist J. Clark" <cjc@FreeBSD.ORG>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG, Alexey Dokuchaev <danfe@regency.nsu.ru>, Peter Wemm <peter@wemm.org>, Tom Rhodes <trhodes@FreeBSD.ORG>, Greg Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.ORG>, "David O'Brien" <dev-null@NUXI.com> Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c Message-ID: <20020521020941.A12551@HAL9000.wox.org> In-Reply-To: <p05111702b90fb30b64bb@[10.9.8.215]>; from brad.knowles@skynet.be on Tue, May 21, 2002 at 10:18:58AM %2B0200 References: <200205162121.g4GLLGQ43405@freefall.freebsd.org> <20020516220511.A9DBE380A@overcee.wemm.org> <20020517114010.A57127@regency.nsu.ru> <20020519100324.GK44562@daemon.ninth-circle.org> <20020519134348.I67779@blossom.cjclark.org> <p05111722b90de01cc974@[10.9.8.215]> <20020520195703.A79046@dragon.nuxi.com> <p05111702b90fb30b64bb@[10.9.8.215]>
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Thus spake Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be>: > At 7:57 PM -0700 2002/05/20, David O'Brien wrote: > > > (Of course, ``email'' has been a familiar > > word in France, Germany, and the Netherlands much longer than in England > > --- but for an entirely different reason.) > > Indeed, for precisely this reason, I recommend that we *avoid* > the usage recommended by Knuth. It's one thing to adopt a word from > another language and to use it in much the same sense, it's quite > another to adopt a word with the same spelling (and perhaps > pronunciation), but with quite a different meaning -- especially when > you are cognizant of the contrary meaning in the other language(s). ... > I consider Knuth to be authoritative on matters relating to > computer science. I do not consider him to be authoritative on > matters relating to the use of the English language. When this use > is recognized and recommended by the Oxford English Dictionary, I > might consider it -- but not before. Oh come on. Dictionaries don't determine the language; it's the other way around. And nobody is going to confuse an electronic message with a kind of enamel. There's no need to fuss about either spelling. Let's discuss something more important, like why we're now supposed to use `parent' and `child' instead of `father' and `son' in reference to hierarchical data structures, but `fatherland' and `mother ship' are still okay. ;-) Hmm...is it `hierarchical' or `hierarchic'? `Mothership' or `mother ship'? Does `anal retentive' have a hyphen? How about a colon? Aah, I can't take it anymore! Beam me up, Scotty. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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