Re: sentinel control loops

On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 20:39:18 GMT, in comp.lang.c , Keith Thompson
<kst-u@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>Mark McIntyre <markmcintyre@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>> Alternatively, one could take the opportunity to correct what seems
>> mostly to be a misunderstanding.
>
>That assumes that it's a mistake. Ben Pfaff's statement seemed to
>imply that it's become more or less standard usage in Indian English,

I was making two points
1) I don't consider Ben's experience typical of the Indians I know.
2) I don't think its a bad thing to help people learn better english.

I'd always thought that the point of a human language was to
communicate, and if common words are used unusually, then
communication becomes tricky.

To slip back into C for a moment, there's nothing actually *wrong*
with naming all variables UPPERCASE and all macros in lowercase, or
using macros such as #define P printf, or using the suffix sz to
identify doubles. I suspect that we'd generally agree however that
such usage was confusing, no matter how 'commonplace' it might be in
the school or country from which the poster hailed.

By the way I'd agree more with your thesis by the way if I'd not seen
the same usage from many non-Indians in this group.

>no more of a mistake than spelling "color" with a 'u'.

Luckily we brits can keep our pants up without suspenders....

>Either way, those of us who read comp.lang.c need to be aware that the
>word "doubt" is often used to mean "question", particularly (it seems)
>by posters from India. Conversely, posters would be well advised to
>use the word "question" to avoid any misunderstandings by those of us
>who speak American or British English.

Absolutely.
--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
CLC readme: <http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>

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