Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 10:42:02 +0930 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey <grog@FreeBSD.org> To: Andrea Campi <andrea+freebsd_cvs_all@webcom.it> Cc: Maxim Konovalov <maxim@freebsd.org>, Alexey Dokuchaev <danfe@freebsd.org>, src-committers@freebsd.org, John Baldwin <jhb@freebsd.org>, Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>, Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>, cvs-src@freebsd.org, cvs-all@freebsd.org, Ceri Davies <ceri@submonkey.net> Subject: Bike shed colour (was: cvs commit: src/sys/ufs/ufs ufs_vnops.c) Message-ID: <20060606011202.GS50579@wantadilla.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <20060605183019.GF19766@webcom.it> References: <200606050830.12584.jhb@freebsd.org> <20060605155221.3ECBB45093@ptavv.es.net> <20060605183019.GF19766@webcom.it>
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--N7HXVILz59yg1nI8 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline On Monday, 5 June 2006 at 18:30:19 +0000, Andrea Campi wrote: > On Mon, Jun 05, 2006 at 08:52:21AM -0700, Kevin Oberman wrote: >>>>> Shouldn't that be "Which colour?" or even "Which color?" *duck* >>>> >>>> I don't think so. Why should it? >>> >>> Somewhere in my brain there's this notion that if one is choosing amongst a >>> set of items one should use 'which' rather than 'what', e.g. 'which floor' in >>> an elevator rather than 'what floor'. >> >> Would someone with a copy of "Elements of Style" look this up and paint >> the damned shed! > > My copy of "Practical English Usage" (great book, BTW) says: > > Which and what are often both possible, with little difference of > meaning. Which is preferred when the speaker has a limited number of > choices in mind. When the speaker is not thinking of a limited number > of choices, what is used. Excellent advice, apart from the use of the passive. This is very close to what I had decided to answer jhb, with a reference to the GUI problem: - "which" is a menu selection. - "what" is a synthesis. I was certainly not planning to restrict myself to a choice from a menu, so "what" seems appropriate. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers. --N7HXVILz59yg1nI8 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFEhNZiIubykFB6QiMRArc4AKCTO2J2BftQU1qmt8kk31QPjLh/DwCcCAbg NpsheMvCeshHdfYLfigLY1Y= =lMaH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --N7HXVILz59yg1nI8--
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