Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:52:57 +0100 | From | Oliver Hartkopp <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] NET: fix wrong English expression in comments |
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Eric Dumazet wrote: > David Miller a écrit : > >> From: joe tian <joe.tian.kernel@gmail.com> >> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:36:51 +0800 >> >> >>> 2009/1/12 Li Zefan <lizf@cn.fujitsu.com>: >>> >>>>> @@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ struct inet_bind_bucket; >>>>> struct inet_timewait_sock { >>>>> /* >>>>> * Now struct sock also uses sock_common, so please just >>>>> - * don't add nothing before this first member (__tw_common) --acme >>>>> + * don't add anything before this first member (__tw_common) --acme >>>>> >>>> They are the same meaning... >>>> >>>> >>> I don't think they are the same meaning. >>> I think "don't add anything" means "do add nothing" but not means "don't add >>> nothing" >>> >> No offense to anyone, but the only people arguing for "correctness" >> seem to be non-native speakers of English. Is this correct? :-) >> >> As Ben tries to explain, "don't add nothing" is a colloquialism of >> English that in fact can mean "do not add" >> >> It sounds amusing when read, and I'm not killing the character and >> personality of this comment just for some language lawyering. >> >> No way. >> > > Oh my God... time for me to check what is a colloquialism :) > > > According to wikipedia : > > A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, > writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms are also sometimes > referred to collectively as "colloquial language". [1] Colloquialisms > or colloquial language is considered to be characteristic of or only > appropriate for casual, ordinary, familiar, or informal conversation > rather than formal speech or writing.
So the Linux Kernels comments are only for native speakers of English that are familiar with these colloquialisms?
I also would have to think longer about the current comment than i would have to on the patched one.
When we reduce parentheses and have coding style definitions to make the reading of source code easy and fast - why don't we fix these colloquialisms that are confusing non-native English speakers?
I personally would vote for this particular patch - but i assume thousands of these patches might jam the mailing lists then :-(
Regards, Oliver
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