docbook: [OT] ISO's vs ISOs
Subject:
Re: [OT] ISO's vs ISOs
From:
Peter Jay Salzman ####@####.####
Date:
22 Jul 2002 08:00:07 -0000
Message-Id: <20020722080002.GB30629@dirac.org>
begin Alexander Bartolich ####@####.####
> Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> > [...] sentence B seems more correct,
> > but to my eyes, sentence A looks more
> > pleasing; it just looks better with the apostrophe.
>
> I'm not a native speaker.
> I do make grave mistakes quite often.
> Therefore I would never dare to make deliberate errors.
> Even worse, people like me are obsessed with correctness.
> I can't speak for others. But I'd say that you are not
> likely to be associated with the term 'artist'.
the strange thing about the internet is that you're never sure to whom
you're talking to. actually, i am an artist, not by trade, but by
hobby. it's how i relax.
so you're saying that using apostrophes for me is ok but not for a
non-artist? ;)
in all seriousness, it's not as clear cut as you may think. english is
wonderfully complex in this regard. it's a living language.
a friend of mine just emailed me and said that he asked the same
question of another friend who happens to be a professional writer.
she said that *traditionally*, you would not use an apostrophe when
forming the plural of an acronym, but it's becoming more and more
acceptable to do so. the apostrophe makes it clear that the "s" isn't
part of the acronym.
consider the following sentences which are commonly used in english:
* Zoot suits were common in the 1970's.
* Mind your P's and Q's.
you'll see this all over the place, and not just modern texts, but old
ones as well. this use of apostrophe in these sentences is pretty much
*unanimously* accepted. you may ask why.
i'll tell you why. :)
consider the 2nd sentence:
* Mind your P's and Q's.
let's write it your way.
* Mind your Ps and Qs.
besides making me want to barf my dinner all over the keyboard, it's
completely ambiguous. what exactly should you be minding? should you
be minding a "P" or should you be minding a "Ps"? if you've never seen
this sentence before (and you, as a non-native speaker should appreciate
this) how do you KNOW that a "P" should be minded and not a "Ps"?
let's take another example, written your way:
* Never use TLAs.
can you tell me what i should never use? should i never use a "TLA", or
should i never use a "TLAs"?
it's ambiguous.
the apostrophe tells me that the "s" is NOT part of the acronym.
therefore, i shouldn't be using a "TLA", and not a "TLAs".
does that make sense?
i hope this illustrates that the answer isn't quite clear. using the
apostrophe is becoming accepted; it's already common.
anyway, i don't want to give the impression that my mind is made up. i
just wanted to play devil's advocate for a moment. believe it or not,
your input is valuable to me. please consider my arguments; i think
they're persuasive.
btw, being obsessive about *anything* can't be good... :)
pete
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<type 'exceptions.IOError'> | Python 2.5.2: /usr/bin/python
Wed May 15 15:29:59 2024 |
A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of
function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/main.py in main() |
424
|
425 if path is not None:
|
426 main_path(path)
|
427 else:
|
428 main_form()
|
| global main_form = <function main_form at 0x9638c6c> |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/main.py in main_form() |
378 except ImportError:
|
379 die(ctxt, "Invalid command")
|
380 module.do(ctxt)
|
381
|
382 def main():
|
| module = <module 'commands.showmsg' from '/opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/commands/showmsg.pyc'>, module.do = <function do at 0x96405dc>, global ctxt = {'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'} |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/commands/showmsg.py in do(ctxt={'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}) |
18 write(html('msg-pager') % ctxt)
|
19 write('<hr>')
|
20 sub_showmsg(ctxt, ctxt[MSGNUM])
|
21 write('<hr>')
|
22 write(html('msg-pager') % ctxt)
|
| global sub_showmsg = <function sub_showmsg at 0x96381ec>, ctxt = {'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, global MSGNUM = 'msgnum' |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/globalfns.py in sub_showmsg(ctxt={'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, msgnum=236) |
229 format_timestamp(ctxt, ctxt)
|
230 write(html('msg-header') % ctxt)
|
231 rec_showpart(ctxt, msg, 0)
|
232 write(html('msg-footer') % ctxt)
|
233 ctxt.pop()
|
| global rec_showpart = <function rec_showpart at 0x96381b4>, ctxt = {'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, msg = <email.message.Message instance at 0x9696dec> |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/globalfns.py in rec_showpart(ctxt={'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, part=<email.message.Message instance at 0x9696dec>, partnum=1) |
205 else:
|
206 for p in part.get_payload():
|
207 partnum = rec_showpart(ctxt, p, partnum+1)
|
208 else:
|
209 write(html('msg-sep') % ctxt)
|
| partnum = 1, global rec_showpart = <function rec_showpart at 0x96381b4>, ctxt = {'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, p = <email.message.Message instance at 0x9696eac> |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/globalfns.py in rec_showpart(ctxt={'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, part=<email.message.Message instance at 0x9696eac>, partnum=2) |
208 else:
|
209 write(html('msg-sep') % ctxt)
|
210 sub_showpart(ctxt, part)
|
211 return partnum
|
212
|
| global sub_showpart = <function sub_showpart at 0x9638144>, ctxt = {'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, part = <email.message.Message instance at 0x9696eac> |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/globalfns.py in sub_showpart(ctxt={'cmd': 'showmsg', 'threadidx': 2, 'HTTP_X_FORWA...HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING': 'gzip, br, zstd, deflate'}, part=<email.message.Message instance at 0x9696eac>) |
164 type = ctxt[TYPE] = part.get_content_type()
|
165 ctxt[FILENAME] = part.get_filename()
|
166 template = html('msg-' + type.replace('/', '-'))
|
167 if not template:
|
168 template = html('msg-' + type[:type.find('/')])
|
| global template = <function template at 0x9630e9c>, global html = <function html at 0x9630ed4>, type = 'application/pgp-signature', type.replace = <built-in method replace of str object at 0x9699cd0> |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/globalfns.py in html(name='msg-application-pgp-signature') |
40
|
41 def html(name):
|
42 return template(name + '.html')
|
43
|
44 def xml(name):
|
| global template = <function template at 0x9630e9c>, name = 'msg-application-pgp-signature' |
| /opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20/globalfns.py in template(filename='msg-application-pgp-signature.html') |
31 except IOError:
|
32 if not _template_zipfile:
|
33 _template_zipfile = zipfile.ZipFile(sys.argv[0])
|
34 try:
|
35 f = _template_zipfile.open(n).read()
|
| global _template_zipfile = None, global zipfile = <module 'zipfile' from '/usr/lib/python2.5/zipfile.pyc'>, zipfile.ZipFile = <class zipfile.ZipFile at 0x95c9a7c>, global sys = <module 'sys' (built-in)>, sys.argv = ['-c', '/opt/ezmlm-browse-0.20'] |
| /usr/lib/python2.5/zipfile.py in __init__(self=<zipfile.ZipFile instance at 0x9643b2c>, file='-c', mode='r', compression=0, allowZip64=False) |
337 self.filename = file
|
338 modeDict = {'r' : 'rb', 'w': 'wb', 'a' : 'r+b'}
|
339 self.fp = open(file, modeDict[mode])
|
340 else:
|
341 self._filePassed = 1
|
| self = <zipfile.ZipFile instance at 0x9643b2c>, self.fp = None, builtin open = <built-in function open>, file = '-c', modeDict = {'a': 'r+b', 'r': 'rb', 'w': 'wb'}, mode = 'r' |
<type 'exceptions.IOError'>: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '-c'
args =
(2, 'No such file or directory')
errno =
2
filename =
'-c'
message =
''
strerror =
'No such file or directory'
