RE: What the compiler does, or not?

On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, Simon Coulter wrote:
>
> Actually which spelling one uses depends on whether one speaks and
> writes English or 'Murican.  In English "programme" is a perfectly valid
> spelling for the object that contains machine code however the general
> convention has been to use "program" for computer program and
> "programme" for the document one receives when one attends the opera or
> other such concert. This is only a convention and either form is
> acceptable.

I was confident that he was talking about a computer program, not a
document that he received at the opera.  My apologies if I was mistaken.

However, the point of my message was to express frustration with his
nitpicking of my words, not to actually correct him.  It makes little
difference to me how he spells things, I was just picking on him because
he was picking on me.

> These are just examples of "English as She is Spoke". Given Carel's name
> one can presume that English is not his native tongue so some leeway
> should be allowed. At least he seems technically competent and
> resourceful which is more than can be said for some recent appenders.

Amen to that!

Which is related, in a way, to my frustration.  It seems like if I posted
a message where I typed in all capital letters and asked a question about
something that has nothing to do with RPG, and then provided almost no
detail about what I wanted to know so that everyone reads the message and
says "huh?"  People will treat me with the utmost respect and courtesy.

But, if I take a fair amount of time to explain a concept, provide code to
illustrate it, and generally try to help, what happens?   Someone
scrutinizes every word of my message, and tries to find some way where I
didn't say it perfectly, and then calls it out for everyone else to
criticize.

> Also, the grammatical error was not with the full stop (that's a period
> to you lot) after "areas" but rather the incorrect use of the apostrophe
> indicating possesion when a plural was meant. (I know that's what you
> meant but it ain't what you said and since we're picking nits ...)

Yes, you're much better better at picking nits than I am. :)