Checking environment variable existence

[Randal L. Schwartz]

Anno> Grammar describes usage, not the other way around. Otherwise, you'd
Anno> have to correct everyone who used "impedance". For grammatical reasons
Anno> "impedance" is wrong, it should be "impedience". The same goes for a
Anno> lot of technical terms, and not only technical terms.

Or "Commentator", which makes me cringe every time I hear it.
A person who provides comments is a "commenter". Otherwise, what
are they doing... commentating?

 

[Anno Siegel]

Anno> Grammar describes usage, not the other way around. Otherwise, you'd
Anno> have to correct everyone who used "impedance". For grammatical reasons
Anno> "impedance" is wrong, it should be "impedience". The same goes for a
Anno> lot of technical terms, and not only technical terms.

Or "Commentator", which makes me cringe every time I hear it.
A person who provides comments is a "commenter". Otherwise, what
are they doing... commentating?

That used to be (still is, for all I know) a recurring thread over in
AUE. Along with the "orientate/oriention" conundrum and other enjoyables

Anno

 

[Peter J. Acklam]

Anno> Grammar describes usage, not the other way around.
Anno> Otherwise, you'd have to correct everyone who used
Anno> "impedance". For grammatical reasons "impedance" is
Anno> wrong, it should be "impedience". The same goes for a lot
Anno> of technical terms, and not only technical terms.

Or "Commentator", which makes me cringe every time I hear it. A
person who provides comments is a "commenter". Otherwise, what
are they doing... commentating?

How about "hierarchical". Nowadays it's "hierarchical menus" and
the "hierarchical data format" (HDF) etc. No dictionary I have
seen contains "hierarchical". They all say it's "hierarchal".

Peter

 

[Alan J. Flavell]

Or "Commentator", which makes me cringe every time I hear it.
A person who provides comments is a "commenter".

Yeah. In good old steam-radio days, what you got from a "commentator"
was supposed to be a proper description of what was going on - not
merely comments about it.

Otherwise, what are they doing... commentating?

Absolutely. That's why they are put into the "commentating booth"!

There's surely as much difference between a commenter and a
commentator as there is between a commuter and a commutator. Hmmm?

What's this got to do with Perl, anyway? :-} Anybody would think
we're on alt.usage.english (or alt.english.usage depending on your
persuasion...).

 

[Tassilo v. Parseval]

Also sprach Peter J. Acklam:

How about "hierarchical". Nowadays it's "hierarchical menus" and
the "hierarchical data format" (HDF) etc. No dictionary I have
seen contains "hierarchical". They all say it's "hierarchal".

My Oxford however mentions "hierarchical" and not "hierarchal".
Likewise "commentator" and not "commenter". Btw, the verb "commentate"
also exists according to the Oxford:

com-ment-ate v [I,Ipr] ~ (on sth)
(a) describe, esp on TV or radio, an event as it
happens: [...]

And so, it's quite naturally a "commentator".

Tassilo

 

[Ben Morrow]

Also sprach Peter J. Acklam:

How about "hierarchical". Nowadays it's "hierarchical menus" and
the "hierarchical data format" (HDF) etc. No dictionary I have
seen contains "hierarchical". They all say it's "hierarchal".

My Oxford however mentions "hierarchical" and not "hierarchal".
Likewise "commentator" and not "commenter". Btw, the verb "commentate"
also exists according to the Oxford:

com-ment-ate v [I,Ipr] ~ (on sth)
(a) describe, esp on TV or radio, an event as it
happens: [...]

And so, it's quite naturally a "commentator".

Mine states that 'commenter' was Middle English, but is obsolete.

Ben

 

[James Willmore]

James> I had to look up _where_ I got "environmental" from. Ironically, page
James> 155 of "Unix Shell Programming" has "environment". So, I guess I
James> filled in the "al" part

Which is why I pointed it out. There's a proper term for it, and
you weren't using it.

Yes. And now I'll *never* forget.

Although ... I wonder ...
how many "green people" does it take to set an environmental variable ;-)

And for that matter ....
how many Perl programmers does it take to set an environment variable ;-)

Jim
(jwillmore _at_ adelphia _dot_ net)

 

[Sam Holden]

Anno> Grammar describes usage, not the other way around. Otherwise, you'd
Anno> have to correct everyone who used "impedance". For grammatical reasons
Anno> "impedance" is wrong, it should be "impedience". The same goes for a
Anno> lot of technical terms, and not only technical terms.

Or "Commentator", which makes me cringe every time I hear it.
A person who provides comments is a "commenter". Otherwise, what
are they doing... commentating?

We call it commentating down in these parts.

Different from commenting in that it is a task and not just a passing
comment. Making a commentary as opposed to a one of comment.

Of course, as always, there is no real definition of the difference,
it's just an implication. Commentating is to hate, as commenting is to
dislike (well that's the best I can come up with off the top of my
head)...