From owner-cvs-src@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 6 01:47:19 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: cvs-src@freebsd.org Delivered-To: cvs-src@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7704B16B27E; Tue, 6 Jun 2006 01:12:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: from ext-gw.lemis.com (ext-gw.lemis.com [150.101.14.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A3D4343D46; Tue, 6 Jun 2006 01:12:03 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: from wantadilla.lemis.com (wantadilla.lemis.com [192.109.197.135]) by ext-gw.lemis.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33429131E05; Tue, 6 Jun 2006 10:42:02 +0930 (CST) Received: by wantadilla.lemis.com (Postfix, from userid 1004) id 13B988675C; Tue, 6 Jun 2006 10:42:02 +0930 (CST) Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2006 10:42:02 +0930 From: Greg 'groggy' Lehey To: Andrea Campi Message-ID: <20060606011202.GS50579@wantadilla.lemis.com> References: <200606050830.12584.jhb@freebsd.org> <20060605155221.3ECBB45093@ptavv.es.net> <20060605183019.GF19766@webcom.it> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="N7HXVILz59yg1nI8" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20060605183019.GF19766@webcom.it> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Organization: The FreeBSD Project Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-418-838-708 VoIP: sip:0871270137@sip.internode.on.net WWW-Home-Page: http://www.FreeBSD.org/ X-PGP-Fingerprint: 9A1B 8202 BCCE B846 F92F 09AC 22E6 F290 507A 4223 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:15:02 +0000 Cc: Maxim Konovalov , Alexey Dokuchaev , src-committers@freebsd.org, John Baldwin , Bruce Evans , Kevin Oberman , cvs-src@freebsd.org, cvs-all@freebsd.org, Ceri Davies Subject: Bike shed colour (was: cvs commit: src/sys/ufs/ufs ufs_vnops.c) X-BeenThere: cvs-src@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: CVS commit messages for the src tree List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2006 01:47:19 -0000 --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--