Grammar/Vocabulary ??? - Page 2

Diallo B · 03-04-2008, 01:54 PM

wow. well no one would ever expect me to be a nerd from first impression, let alone someone that writes code, so all of this 'arrogance and elitist' innuendo really does not apply to me.

i simply have stopped using caps for informal writing. i am really just surprised that so many of you see it as a big deal.

with all these salvos of bb guns and saturday night specials i might need to come up with some htf body armor.....

**HTF Ads**

Jeff Gatie · 03-04-2008, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diallo B

wow. well no one would ever expect me to be a nerd from first impression, let alone someone that writes code, so all of this 'arrogance and elitist' innuendo really does not apply to me.

i simply have stopped using caps for informal writing. i am really just surprised that so many of you see it as a big deal.

with all these salvos of bb guns and saturday night specials i might need to come up with some htf body armor.....

Why would you think informal writing is not worth capitalizing, especially when it takes barely more effort to do it correctly than it does to do it incorrectly? Also, why would you do it on a forum that seems to hold to conventions, except to set you apart from the norm?

By the way, you do realize the "all lower case" convention came from early compilers that did not distinguish between capital and small letters; so 'Count' was the same as 'COUNT' which was the same as 'count", right? Thankfully, those compilers have gone the way of the 25 column CRT and the trailing close bracket. I just wish the "all small letters is kool" convention would follow, at least out in the real world.

BrianW · 03-04-2008, 02:24 PM

Jeff, you just don't get it. What's claptrap to you is a permanent hall pass for us!

Quote:

Originally Posted by diallo b

with all these salvos of bb guns and saturday night specials i might need to come up with some htf body armor.....

I'm with you, diallo b! Break out the HTF flac jacket, close the battle doors, and raise the shields! Because the alternative -- using the Shift key -- is just too unthinkable!

BTW, diallo, how long have you been coding? Can you pick your nose in church yet?

Holadem · 03-04-2008, 02:24 PM

it's l337. like

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h

Christ Reynolds · 03-04-2008, 02:58 PM

Quote:

How about the rain of apostrophes? It's gotten so any word that just happens to end with an "S" gets an apostrophe. The rule is simple. If the word is a contraction (You are: You're) it gets an apostrophe. If it is a possessive (Jim's HT) it gets an apostrophe. Abbreviations such as DVDs don't get them.

This is a disease that cannot be stopped. Look for it, and you'll find these error's (tee hee) everywhere.

As for capitalization, my first ~9 years on the internet, I doubt I properly capitalized anything on forums or emails. I started properly capitalizing about 4 years ago (wow, I've been using the internet for 13 years?!). It just feels like I'm being less unprofessional. Even if my post is pure junk, at least it will be readable

CJ

Jeff Gatie · 03-04-2008, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christ Reynolds

This is a disease that cannot be stopped. Look for it, and you'll find these error's (tee hee) everywhere.

CJ

I'm an inappropriate apostropher (apostrophe'er??). I always got the its/it's thing wrong and I still can't figure out what to do with a possesive plural ending in 's'. But I got the capitalization thing down!!

Jeff Gatie · 03-04-2008, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianW

Jeff, you just don't get it. What's claptrap to you is a permanent hall pass for us!

I still remember the nightmare I had about 12 years ago when I had to port some communications code (I think it was Z-modem) written by one of those FSF nuts. It was an amalgamam of C and C++ and contained no less than 20 "goto's" (I mean "gotos"

)." The documentation took great delight in explaining how very taboo the goto is and how the self-described genius of an author used them to weed out the lesser persons who were not able to follow his purposefully anarchistic code. What a tool he was. I wrote him an e-mail in which I corrected about 12 bugs, one of which was his improper use of a goto.

Holadem · 03-04-2008, 03:17 PM

Since we're confessing, I tend to collage words into new ones, and split other words into two. Like "anycase" and "some times." Or "every day" rather than "everyday." I have to stop and give some thought to the appropriate form.

Perhaps I should learn German (where I understand it's perfectly OK to stick words together like that to form new ones)

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H

Jeff Gatie · 03-04-2008, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holadem

Since we're confessing, I tend to collage words into new ones, and split other words into two. Like "anycase" and "some times." Or "every day" rather than "everyday." I have to stop and give some thought to the appropriate form.

Perhaps I should learn German (where I understand it's perfectly OK to stick words together like that to form new ones)

--
H

H, You've got nothing to worry about. You write english better than 90% of the people I know, and they grew up writing it. A couple split words is nothing when an entire generation of Americans think "loose" is the opposite of "win".

Christ Reynolds · 03-04-2008, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Gatie

I'm an inappropriate apostropher (apostrophe'er??). I always got the its/it's thing wrong and I still can't figure out what to do with a possesive plural ending in 's'. But I got the capitalization thing down!!

As an inappropriate apostropher, I hope you leave it out when in doubt. Quite annoying when people throw it in for no reason.

The possessive plural is tricky for me, I try to avoid it

As for it's/its, the only time you use an apostrophe is if you are abbreviating "it is". All others, use "its". That's how I remember it.

CJ

Walter Kittel · 03-04-2008, 04:23 PM

A site that I stumbled upon years ago.

The Apostrophe

- Walter.

Mike Frezon · 03-04-2008, 04:31 PM

You guys are all too funny.

This has been a fun read.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diallo B

back to the original topic.....

i don't know why it irks me so bad either. as soon as i read it or hear someone use the term it annoys the hell out of me. it especially grates my ears when i hear news announcers or people in professional settings use the term.

And that's what I don't get...since there's really nothing wrong with it. I have lots of misused words that send up red flags for me...like when someone uses the word "over" to mean "more than"...but that's only because I am particular about how I use words and don't understand when others are not as cautious. It's a big part of my profession.

I guess that equates with how some of the other fellas have been taking you to task for not using proper capitalization in your posts. They see capitalization as an important behavior within the community.

I commend you for being able to deal with the comments with an appropriate amount of perspective.