Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 10:37:10 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@online.fr> To: Brad Knowles <brad.knowles@skynet.be> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c Message-ID: <20020521103710.C71209@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <p05111701b90fb2744154@[10.9.8.215]>; from brad.knowles@skynet.be on Tue, May 21, 2002 at 10:15:57AM %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> <p05111701b90fb2744154@[10.9.8.215]>
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Brad Knowles said on May 21, 2002 at 10:15:57: > At 7:57 PM -0700 2002/05/20, David O'Brien wrote: > > >> Right after we settle the "e-mail" vs. "email" debate. ;-) > > > > Knuth already did -- http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html > > > > A note on email versus e-mail > > 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. Dictionaries follow usage of new terminology, they don't dictate them. The second edition was first published in 1989, while the first edition was published in full in 1933, with some supplements in intervening years; in effect, if you insisted on the OED's stamp of authority, you could not have used a lot of new technological words for over 50 years after 1933. And even if the OED tried to dictate a new usage after the fact, it's unlikely to catch on, because the English language has a tradition of being dictated by usage and not by authorities. Even in France, there is an attempt to get people to use "mel" (for "message electronique") or "courriel" (for "courrier electronique") but most people use the English-sounding "email". As for the original dispute about "filesystem" v/s "file system": when I look around my desk, I see a desktop, a lampshade, a doorway, a bookshelf, a trashcan, a cupboard (which does not store cups), a blackboard (which is not black), among other things. All of these started life as two words, and got combined into one word with a specific meaning. A blackboard is not a board which is black, but specifically an object meant to write on with chalk. Similarly, a filesystem is not the cabinet where I keep my assorted folders; it is a separate word with a specific meaning which didn't exist forty years ago, and wasn't important to the general public until much more recently. - Rahul To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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