• me (unregistered) in reply to Hognoxious
    Hognoxious:
    real_aardvark:
    Not very likely. Most pure mathematicians past the age of, oh, around nine and a half can cope with discrete symbolic systems. They might bitch at the fact that this is not expressed as i <= i + 1, but they'll deal with it.
    I assume that's supposed to be an arrow. It's lucky you don't want to decrement the variable, because i <= i - 1 is pretty confusing too. How can i be less than or equal to one less than itself?

    They just need to understand that it,s not an equation, it's a command; there's an implied make or let before it.

    If you were using i in the mathematical sense ( i = \sqrt{-1}), then |i| < |i-1|.

  • guineapigs (unregistered)

    English major married to Aeronautical Astronautical Engineer who writes software for fun as a living: This is hilarious! Thanks for sharing.

  • (cs)

    In English as in programming, I put the comma where it ought to be - into the quotes if it's part of the stri--- I mean, quote, otherwise outside. Screw illogical grammar rules.

    I've pulled something like this before though, and admit it looks awkward in spite of making perfect sense:

    "You can't use two commas in a row,", he paused, "can you?".

  • Richard Nixon (unregistered) in reply to Pap
    Pap:
    She wouldn't had have this problem if only she was educated at Oxford.

    Don't you mean WERE educated at Oxford (subjunctive mood)?

  • Fernando (unregistered)

    "Their our"? Do you mean "there are"? You can't be serious, can you?

  • Paolo G (unregistered) in reply to me

    Ah, but Humphrey Davy, the British chemist who first isolated the metal, used "aluminum" (he first called it "alumium"), and the original American spelling was "aluminium". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Etymology

    "Aluminum" is not the only exception to the rule that elements names ending "um" have to have an "i" before the "um": there are four others, namely lanthanum, molybdenum, platinum and tantalum.

  • ELIZA (unregistered) in reply to Cloak
    Cloak:
    Spoe:
    Tim:
    It's not even a matter of being an alternative. It's the correct form in Britain, to say nothing of being far more logical - people do not say ",", therefore they should not be reported as such! Silly left-pondians...
    It is an alternative, no? You just happen to speak and write a dialect of English that uses the logical method of handling quotations as the default.

    At least we don't stick extra letters and syllables in to perfectly serviceable words like "color" and "aluminum". Just think of the wasted ink and paper! ;)

    Well, I think an "i" doesn't spoil a lot of ink but do you still spell aluminum as aluminium?

    What about "burgled", which you spell and say "burglarized"?

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