method to test if a file exist?

P

Patricia Shanahan

Thomas said:
Andrew McDonagh wrote on 16.04.2006 12:08:



You got me there ;)

But then these are well established abbreviations in newsgroups. I'd
assume that they are just as "common" as i.e., e.g. or etc.

But to a certain extent, you are right.

Thomas

Here's a quick test. If a Google search for "USENET x", without the
quotes, gets the applicable definition of x in the first few hits, it's
probably OK. If not, don't use it.

USENET ur did not get anything useful looking. USENET IMHO got links to
the expansion. One of the first few hits even included the expansion in
the Google quoted text.

Patricia
 
J

jova

Andrew McDonagh said:
Thomas said:
Alex Hunsley wrote on 16.04.2006 10:27:
Yes, I knew what you meant. However, here are four reasons you should
use English in this group:

[skipped a lot of good reasons why to use proper english in a posting]

5) it's the minimum politeness one can ask for!

I usually don't even bother to answer if a posting is written in poor
english. Please note that poor english stemming from a non-native speaker
is something different and can easily be identified as such. But simple
laziness is extremely impolite IMHO. You wouldn't bother to speak to
someone who does not even try to utter complete words, wouldn't you?

Thomas

and yet you used 'IMHO'

go figure...

LOL!!!! exactly.
 
D

David Segall

Patricia Shanahan said:
Here's a quick test. If a Google search for "USENET x", without the
quotes, gets the applicable definition of x in the first few hits, it's
probably OK. If not, don't use it.

USENET ur did not get anything useful looking.
I tried "USENET a", "USENET quick" and "USENET test" and did not get
anything useful looking.
 
P

Patricia Shanahan

David said:
I tried "USENET a", "USENET quick" and "USENET test" and did not get
anything useful looking.

Sorry, I should have put in more context. It was intended to be
applicable to "words" that are neither normal English, nor normal
technical jargon in the subject matter of the newsgroup.

"a", "quick", and "test" all appear in English dictionaries, with
meanings including those I intended.

Patricia
 
P

Patricia Shanahan

jova said:
Thanks this seems helpful. Is the exist() method new for the 1.5 jdk
because I have an old reference book that I was looking at, the book is
based on the1.3 Jdk and I do not see the method in this book or maybe I just
overlooked it. Thanks anyway!!!

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/io/File.html#exists()

Don't depend too much on reference books, especially when you don't find
the feature you are looking for. Some of them get compactness at the
cost of either limited explanation or ignoring features the author
considers less important.

Patricia
 
A

Andrew McDonagh

jova said:
Andrew McDonagh said:
Thomas said:
Alex Hunsley wrote on 16.04.2006 10:27:
Yes, I knew what you meant. However, here are four reasons you should
use English in this group:
[skipped a lot of good reasons why to use proper english in a posting]

5) it's the minimum politeness one can ask for!

I usually don't even bother to answer if a posting is written in poor
english. Please note that poor english stemming from a non-native speaker
is something different and can easily be identified as such. But simple
laziness is extremely impolite IMHO. You wouldn't bother to speak to
someone who does not even try to utter complete words, wouldn't you?

Thomas
and yet you used 'IMHO'

go figure...

LOL!!!! exactly.

'LOL'

Now that is funny!
 
D

David Segall

Patricia Shanahan said:
Sorry, I should have put in more context.
So should I! I wished to point out that it is unreasonable to insist
that posters restrict themselves to your accepted list(s) of words.
For various reasons many people are unable to post a well constructed
English question. They are often criticised for not using Google when
it is clear that the question is difficult for a human to understand
and would be totally incomprehensible to Google.

I know that you were not guilty of criticising anybody. I just
happened to react to the preceding posts after I read yours. Sorry.
 
J

jova

Andrew McDonagh said:
jova said:
Andrew McDonagh said:
Thomas Kellerer wrote:
Alex Hunsley wrote on 16.04.2006 10:27:
Yes, I knew what you meant. However, here are four reasons you should
use English in this group:
[skipped a lot of good reasons why to use proper english in a posting]

5) it's the minimum politeness one can ask for!

I usually don't even bother to answer if a posting is written in poor
english. Please note that poor english stemming from a non-native
speaker is something different and can easily be identified as such.
But simple laziness is extremely impolite IMHO. You wouldn't bother to
speak to someone who does not even try to utter complete words,
wouldn't you?

Thomas


and yet you used 'IMHO'

go figure...

LOL!!!! exactly.

'LOL'

Now that is funny!

I was being sarcastic.
 
R

Roedy Green

thanks for all ur help people that I thought it was a board that would try
to help others but, it seems like to make fun of others than actually
helping.

They are helping you get an education. If they did your assignment for
you, you would be no smarter than before AND the world would be
deceived into thinking you had that knowledge that you did not. You
were asking others to join you in a minor crime of deception. Add
that up and you end up with a degree which is useless since you know
nothing.

You, or your family are paying huge amounts of money for your
education. Don't waste the money. If you really don't want to learn,
take the money and go to Jamaica for a holiday. You will have a lot
more fun and learn a lot more. You are wasting your time giving your
exercises to others to do. You are wasting your school's time. Most
schools receive tax subsidies so there is a good chance you are also
wasting the taxpayer's time and money.

You have an opportunity so few people can afford these days. Don't be
an idiot and waste it. It is very unlikely you will ever get another
chance. You have no idea how many people would give their eye teeth
to have the opportunity you are tossing away.

Think ahead a bit. When you get your first job based on your
education credentials, it will be obvious within a few days you are
fraud. You will be fired. Your degree and all that time going through
the motions will have bought you nothing.

Even if you get another job, the same thing will happen. With that
job history, you may never get another job, even not even a shit job
that requires a resume.

You don't want this to happen to you.

The assignment under your nose today is not nearly as difficult as you
imagine. If it seems insurmountable, BACK UP, and redo past lessons.
There is something you missed that is making today's lessons
unnaturally difficult.

If you demonstrate you are making an effort we will be happy to
clarify specific points.
 
R

Roedy Green

I usually don't even bother to answer if a posting is written in poor english.
Please note that poor english stemming from a non-native speaker is something
different and can easily be identified as such. But simple laziness is extremely
impolite IMHO. You wouldn't bother to speak to someone who does not even try to
utter complete words, wouldn't you?

It is hard enough to glean what a questioner is asking. If he had the
correct vocabulary he could google to find an answer. Notice how often
a question sits idle, then someone answers, then there are a whole
flurry of add-ons. Why? Because somebody finally cracked the code of
what the questioner was asking. (Oliver is an exceptionally good code
cracker) Then it is relatively easy for others to provide answers.

Questioners complain they don't understand the answers, but it is just
as true that answerers can't understand the questions.

You need all the help you can get in both directions:
1. idiomatic English
2. correct spelling
3. providing code

One more reason for using proper spelling and grammar is that it makes
a post easier to find later with Google. If the crucial words are
spelled in some quirky way, Google won't find the post, neither will
Agent local search or Google Desktop.
 
J

jova

Roedy Green said:
They are helping you get an education. If they did your assignment for
you, you would be no smarter than before AND the world would be
deceived into thinking you had that knowledge that you did not. You
were asking others to join you in a minor crime of deception. Add
that up and you end up with a degree which is useless since you know
nothing.

You, or your family are paying huge amounts of money for your
education. Don't waste the money. If you really don't want to learn,
take the money and go to Jamaica for a holiday. You will have a lot
more fun and learn a lot more. You are wasting your time giving your
exercises to others to do. You are wasting your school's time. Most
schools receive tax subsidies so there is a good chance you are also
wasting the taxpayer's time and money.

You have an opportunity so few people can afford these days. Don't be
an idiot and waste it. It is very unlikely you will ever get another
chance. You have no idea how many people would give their eye teeth
to have the opportunity you are tossing away.

Think ahead a bit. When you get your first job based on your
education credentials, it will be obvious within a few days you are
fraud. You will be fired. Your degree and all that time going through
the motions will have bought you nothing.

Even if you get another job, the same thing will happen. With that
job history, you may never get another job, even not even a shit job
that requires a resume.

You don't want this to happen to you.

The assignment under your nose today is not nearly as difficult as you
imagine. If it seems insurmountable, BACK UP, and redo past lessons.
There is something you missed that is making today's lessons
unnaturally difficult.

If you demonstrate you are making an effort we will be happy to
clarify specific points.


I'm sorry when I click your link for help it didn't come up on my computer.
But, it works now.

I appreciate your speech on me learning and everything but, I'm almost 30
years old and quite frankly I do not need a speech about how a job works and
what's best for my learning abilities. I never asked anyone to do my
assignment that was given to me from school and to be honest that is just
the tip of the iceberg of what I'm really working on. My question was just
asking if a certain method existed or not. Is that any different from
asking one of your coworkers at your job for something that you should
know, just for some reason you can't find the information that you are
looking for?
 
A

Alex Hunsley

Andrew said:
Alex said:
Andrew said:
Thomas Kellerer wrote:
Alex Hunsley wrote on 16.04.2006 10:27:
Yes, I knew what you meant. However, here are four reasons you
should use English in this group:

[skipped a lot of good reasons why to use proper english in a posting]

5) it's the minimum politeness one can ask for!

I usually don't even bother to answer if a posting is written in
poor english. Please note that poor english stemming from a
non-native speaker is something different and can easily be
identified as such. But simple laziness is extremely impolite IMHO.
You wouldn't bother to speak to someone who does not even try to
utter complete words, wouldn't you?

Thomas



and yet you used 'IMHO'

go figure...

IMHO and related items are acronyms, as opposed to lazy mispellings of
words like 'ur'.

sure...

and words like 'ur' are abbreviations.

Yeah, sure are. I personally find such an abbreviation of such a common
and short word annoying.
Both are perfectly legal English language constructs.

And the same can b said about abbreviations.

I agree that it sounds daft at first that people moan about 'ur' but not
about IMHO etc, but I suppose it comes down to the fact that 'b', 'ur'
etc. aren't in standard usenet usage (in certain groups). And typing
IMHO, a common (and polite) sentiment saves a decent bit of typing,
whereas 'b' versus 'be' is not really worth the slower reading time and
possible confusion.

Seeing 'b' and 'ur' etc. in posts increases the cognitive load of the
reader. It's harder to read, so less people will be bothered to read the
post. So less help for the original poster, whereas things like IMHO are
infrequent enough and well accepted/recognised that they usually don't
tend to turn people off reading posts.

Also consider the confusion for non-native English speakers when
encountering such terms as 'ur' littering even the shortest post. (Of
course, if more people used 'ur' etc. then it would become standard and
well understood usage, but we aren't there yet...)

The beauty of Abbreviations is that their true meaning can often be
discovered by the context or even their placement within the sentence.

This allows us to create nu 1s on the fly.

But they increase cognitive load ( == annoying) and cause difficulty to
non-native English users of the groups.
Out of interest: why don't I see you using text-style writing in your posts?
Acronyms however, don't support this.

Actually, in defense of acronyms, a few times I've encountered a new
one, and pretty quickly realised what it meant, given the context. And
the common acronyms are useful /exactly because/ people usually don't
just make new ones up on the spot, and used well known ones - hence
they're not a big obstacle to understanding, once you know the common
ones like FWIW, IM(H)O, BTW, and so on.

Something that makes me smile...

'GSM SMS messages'

or expanded to its proper form because acronyms are lazy....

'Global System for Mobile communication Simple Messaging System messages'

Both are such a 'mouthful' that they have been shortened to :

Text Message
Texts
txts
(and others)


The text part is funny - as its implied in the SMS part of the sentence
above. But because technology moved on and we got MultiMedia Messaging,
we introduced the 'text' to differentiate.

Ah, the wonders of acronym history!
Have you come across 'SMS slang'? Where people say 'book' instead of
'cool', because a mobile phone with auto complete comes up with 'book'
as the first guess when you try to type 'cool'....
:)
 
C

Chris Smith

jova said:
I'm sorry when I click your link for help it didn't come up on my computer.
But, it works now.

Good. Hopefully, you've got the help you need.

May I suggest you drop this? I understand if you misunderstood the
earlier joking around as laughing at your expense, and I'm sure everyone
regrets that misunderstanding at some level. When I read the thread
myself, though, I did not see it that way. Sometimes, people on this
newsgroup just joke around with each other. I do it a lot, too. We
know each other, and we occasionally have fun. It's no criticism that a
couple people chose to do it in this thread. If you got correct
answers, then you've really no good reason to care what else happens in
the thread.

--
www.designacourse.com
The Easiest Way To Train Anyone... Anywhere.

Chris Smith - Lead Software Developer/Technical Trainer
MindIQ Corporation
 
R

Roedy Green

and words like 'ur' are abbreviations.

Both are perfectly legal English language constructs.

"perfectly legal" ? that's a stretch. The terms are not in the
dictionary. Most of the terms are ad hoc and undefined.

Sins when iz impurrfict fonetik spelin purfuctlee legul Inlush?

Try writing your Harvard PhD thesis in it (in it, not about it).

Textspeak is a combination of reduced punctuation, phonetic spelling,
leaving out vowels and replacing some vowel sounds with digits. It
is related to shorthand.

Interestingly, Hebrew works like textspeak. The vowels don't appear in
the written form. You have to deduce them.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/textspeak.html
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/netspeak.html
 
A

Andrew McDonagh

Roedy said:
"perfectly legal" ? that's a stretch. The terms are not in the
dictionary. Most of the terms are ad hoc and undefined.

I said 'abbreviations are perfectly legal. Not the examples.

Thats because there are no 'legal' abbreviations. There's commonly used
ones, but not defined ones.

But then again, most words in the English language today are new, so who
knows, in 10 years time 'ur', 'nu' l8r' , etc may well find their way on
publications like the oxford English dictionary which gives them an air
of legality.

l8r dude
 
T

Tony Morris

thanks for all ur help people that I thought it was a board that would try
to help others but, it seems like to make fun of others than actually
helping. I hope your it helped fill the voids that is missing in your life.
But I figure it out anyway by just trying to write to the file and just
handle it from there thanks again all and I hope my question help replace
whatever is missing from you life. Enjoy!!!

It is called "jest". Cripes!
It is also a somewhat obscure answer to your question - deliberately
obscured so that you, the original poster, must expend some effort above
zero.

I hope this obscure answer fills in your void and ... blah blah
blah ... (insert newsgroup nonsense here).
 
O

Oliver Wong

David Segall said:
They are often criticised for not using Google when
it is clear that the question is difficult for a human to understand
and would be totally incomprehensible to Google.

I've started giving "possibly-lazy" posters the benefit of the doubt,
and rather than just say "Use Google", I actually perform a quick google
query. There are two possible outcomes:

(1) I get relevant results just as easily as I expected. I post the
google query I used (as a sort of teaching-by-example showing how to
construct good queries for Google), and a link to the first result I got (so
that the reader has to manually perform the google search themselves if they
wish to see the other links).

(2) I don't get any relevant results, in which I realize that the topic
is actually obscure, or it isn't obvious how to find more information on it
via Google, in which case I either dig further (try different queries, try
Wikipedia, etc.), or give up.

- Oliver
 
O

Oliver Wong

Roedy Green said:
"perfectly legal" ? that's a stretch. The terms are not in the
dictionary. Most of the terms are ad hoc and undefined.

Sins when iz impurrfict fonetik spelin purfuctlee legul Inlush?

Try writing your Harvard PhD thesis in it (in it, not about it).

To be fair, you probably wouldn't want to start your thesis statement
with "IMHO" either.

- Oliver
 

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