I have a doubt

[CBFalconer]

Richard Tobin said:

It is sufficient to say "English"; we don't need to label our
language with its country of origin, for the same reason that we
don't need to put the name of our country on our stamps. And Mr
Bos is correct. In English, using "doubt" in the noun form as a
synonym for "question" is simply wrong.

But "have a doubt" is an idiom. I have been known to have doubts,
including whether this is worth fussing over. Concentrate on the
silly abbreviations, lack of capitalization, funny punctuation that
really foul the articles.

 

[CBFalconer]

Richard Tobin said:

I didn't impose my language on anyone (except, arguably, my
children). And I didn't lose any rights whatsoever by so doing.
YMMV.


If we'd kept ourselves to ourselves, we'd all be speaking German!

Maybe Celtic, Erse, or Welsh. Even Latin. Mongrels forever.

 

[Richard Tobin]

Alas no. By imposing our language on the world through imperialism,
we lost that right.

[/QUOTE]

I didn't impose my language on anyone (except, arguably, my children). And I
didn't lose any rights whatsoever by so doing. YMMV.

You're right, few of us alive now personally did that. But the
Indians and others who had British rule imposed on them may reasonably
feel that they have the right to call the language they have had to
learn "English", regardless of how it differs from the version spoken
in Britain. So we cannot expect the unqualified term to unambiguously
refer to that version.

[As an aside, there was one of those aren't-Americans-stupid surveys a
few years ago, in which some large proportion of US children were
unable to guess what language was spoken in England.]

If we'd kept ourselves to ourselves, we'd all be speaking German!

If we'd kept ourselves to ourselves, we'd never have invited them
over in 1688...

-- Richard

 

[Ben Bacarisse]

The main exception to this is the binding of "&" and "|". Dennis
Ritchie explained their mis-placement in a Usenet posting many years
ago.

<interesting history snipped>

Thank you. Very informative. I'd often wondered why they were out of
place for their most common use.

 

[Arthur J. O'Dwyer]

And what would you put in the horribly sTuDlYcApPeD and far too
verbosely named whateverTheConditionIsForLaunch()? Possibly something
like this:

int whateverTheConditionIsForLaunch(void)
{
return 0
|| foo1 && foo2 && foo3
|| foo4 && foo5 && foo6
|| foo7 && foo8 && foo9;
}

Unless Ian is in the habit of using a lot of global variables,
it would more likely have to be

if (whateverTheConditionIsForLaunch(foo1, foo2, foo3, foo4, foo5,
foo6, foo7, foo8, foo9))
launch();

static int whateverTheConditionIsForLaunch(int foo1, int foo2,
int foo3, int foo4, int foo5, int foo6, int foo7,
int foo8, int foo9)
{
return 0
|| foo1 && foo2 && foo3
|| foo4 && foo5 && foo6
|| foo7 && foo8 && foo9;
}

There, see? It's more readable already!

-Arthur

 

[Ian Collins]

Unless Ian is in the habit of using a lot of global variables,
it would more likely have to be

Globals, probably not. Static variables, more likely. When faced with
the choice of large functions with many local variables, or more smaller
functions and static variables, I opt for the latter.

 

[Mark McIntyre]

I believe its an Indian English idiom. Much like the americans have an
anoying habit of saying "I could care less" when they mean the
reverse.

Why do you post using the name 'Christian',

One could ask you the same...
--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

 

[Mark McIntyre]

And can you point us to a country that enforces the English vocabulary
of it's people with a dictionary?

For what its worth, the UK does. Its called "Education", they do it in
places called "Schools" and its compulsory for 11 years.
--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

 

[Mark McIntyre]

Richard Tobin said:


It is sufficient to say "English"; we don't need to label our language with
its country of origin,

In some contexts I agree, but not in this one. Here we're attempting
to differentiate between British, American, Indian and other versions
of English. Just as one would have to say "Borland" or "Ganuck" to
differentiate C dialects, one needs to include the origin in this
case.
--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Mark McIntyre said:

For what its worth, the UK does. Its called "Education", they do it in
places called "Schools" and its compulsory for 11 years.

No, education isn't compulsory in the UK. What *is* compulsory during those
eleven years is attendance at an educational establishment. You can lead a
horse to water...

 

[Kenny McCormack]

I believe its an Indian English idiom. Much like the americans have an
anoying habit of saying "I could care less" when they mean the
reverse.

You do know the derivation of that expression, don't you?

 

[Richard Tobin]

No, education isn't compulsory in the UK. What *is* compulsory during those
eleven years is attendance at an educational establishment.

No, this is the opposite of the truth. See for example:

http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/edu...ingathomeoutsideschool/electivehomeeducation/

In particular, "Under UK law it is education that is compulsory, not
schooling".

Parents of children *who are registered at a school* are required to
ensure they attend regularly.

-- Richard

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Mark McIntyre said:

In some contexts I agree, but not in this one.

Well, you're allowed to disagree - after all, you can't be right all the
time.

Here we're attempting
to differentiate between British, American, Indian and other versions
of English.

English - the principal language spoken in England.
Usanian - the principal language spoken in the USA.
Indian - the principal language spoken in India.
German - the principal language spoken in Germany.
Generic Foreign - all the other languages (but feel free to pluck them from
the pit as you see fit).

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Richard Tobin said:

No, this is the opposite of the truth.

Kind of wrong, but I know what you're saying.

See for example:

In particular, "Under UK law it is education that is compulsory, not
schooling".

Home-schooling is still schooling. I've done it, so I know. And we regarded
our home as an educational establishment (during school hours) for the
period we were home-schooling two of our children.

They have to turn up - whether at school or wherever else education is
supposed to be happening - but nobody can force them to listen or learn.

 

[Mark McIntyre]

Well, you're allowed to disagree - after all, you can't be right all
the time.

Chortle. Luckily this is one of the times I'm right.

English - the principal language spoken in England.

Mhm, though in Arxfurrdshoire they seem to speak some form of
Cornubian.

Usanian - the principal language spoken in the USA.

Humorous but wrong.

Indian - the principal language spoken in India.

Actually Hindi, though many others are also spoken, amongst them
Indian English.

German - the principal language spoken in Germany.

Irrelevant.

What was that someone said about not being right all the time?
--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

 

[Mark McIntyre]

They have to turn up - whether at school or wherever else education is
supposed to be happening - but nobody can force them to listen or learn.

How true. The same is by the way true of the readers of CLC.
--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Mark McIntyre said:

Chortle. Luckily this is one of the times I'm right.

Were it topical, I'd argue the toss with you. Since it isn't, I'll simply
note my disagreement and withdraw from this subthread.

 

[Richard]

Richard Tobin said:


It is sufficient to say "English"; we don't need to label our language with
its country of origin, for the same reason that we don't need to put the
name of our country on our stamps. And Mr Bos is correct. In English, using
"doubt" in the noun form as a synonym for "question" is simply wrong.

You are quite incorrect. "English" has many forms and to correctly
understand the meaning one has to know the standard in use.

American use of the word "fanny" importing a quite different meaning
to the British English usage of course.

 

[Richard]

Can you point us to a dictionary that lists doubt as a synonym of
question?

"I have no doubt" is pretty synonymous with "I have no question" to any but the more
anally retentive.

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Richard said:

"I have no doubt" is pretty synonymous with "I have no question"

No, it isn't. "I have no doubt" means "I am sure". "I have no question"
means "I do not currently seek more information". The closest to "I have no
doubt" that I can think of, that involves the word 'question', is "there is
no question", which isn't particularly synonymous with "I have no doubt",
but it comes a lot closer than "I have no question" does.

to any but the more anally retentive.

Getting your retaliation in early, I see. But your claim will carry little
weight with the clueful unless you are a philologist *and* a Freudian
psychologist - both of which seem unlikely.