Re: [Q] Text vs Binary Files

From: Michael Wojcik (mwojcik_at_newsguy.com)
Date: 05/29/04 

Date: 29 May 2004 03:48:35 GMT

In article <Pine.LNX.4.58-035.0405271156530.3494@unix45.andrew.cmu.edu>, "Arthur J. O'Dwyer" <ajo@nospam.andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
> On Thu, 27 May 2004, Eric wrote:
> > Arthur J. O'Dwyer <ajo@nospam.andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
>
> Probably true. I don't know much about XML's namespacing rules
> (by which I mean the rules that say that <foo> is an okay tag for
> a user to create, but <bar> could be given special meaning by
> future standards).

Shall we say it doesn't appear that this will pose a problem, and
leave it at that? This probably isn't the best place to get into a
long-winded discussion of XML. XML has its drawbacks, and is
certainly not an ideal representation for everything, but it is
designed to avoid problems with upward compatibility. (For the
particular case of namespaces: XML has explicit namespaces, and a
policy for registering ones for public use.)

> You misunderstand me. I/O is trivial; thus, after the first five
> minutes spent making sure the trivial code is correct (which is trivial
> to prove), you never need to touch it or look at it again.

While this is arguably true for simple file I/O, there's a lot more
to I/O than that. Indexes. Transactional I/O. Databases. Robust
network I/O. And so forth.

> [1] - In speech I'd say "who'sever writing...," but that looks
> awful no matter how I spell it. Whosever? Whos'ever? Who's-ever?
> Yuck. :(

"whoever's writing", as you had in the original text, is indeed
preferred. It's a contraction of "whoever is writing", after all,
not "who is ever writing" - "ever" here modifies "who", not
"writing", so it shouldn't be moved into the middle of the verb
phrase. "who'sever writing" is an artifact of speech, like "a
whole nother" for "another whole".

The easiest thing to do when faced with a contraction that seems
awkward, though, is to uncontract it (assuming it's a contraction
for which the uncontracted form is still used in English). Try
"whoever is writing". 

-- 
Michael Wojcik                  michael.wojcik@microfocus.com
I will shoue the world one of the grate Wonders of the world in 15
months if Now man mourders me in Dors or out Dors
   -- "Lord" Timothy Dexter, _A Pickle for the Knowing Ones_

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