Обсуждение: "May", "can", "might"
Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways:
may - permission, "You may borrow my rake."
can - ability, "I can lift that log."
might - possibility, "It might rain today."
Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as
in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better
choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash".
I would like to clean up our documentation to consistently use these
words. Objections?
(Who says were obsessive?) :-)
--
Bruce Momjian bruce@momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com
+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +
On 1/31/07, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote: > Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways: > > may - permission, "You may borrow my rake." > > can - ability, "I can lift that log." > > might - possibility, "It might rain today." > > Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as > in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better > choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash". > > I would like to clean up our documentation to consistently use these > words. Objections? My full support. :} I like clarity, specially on such important things as communication! > (Who says were obsessive?) :-)
Andrej Ricnik-Bay wrote: > On 1/31/07, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote: > > Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways: > > > > may - permission, "You may borrow my rake." > > > > can - ability, "I can lift that log." > > > > might - possibility, "It might rain today." > > > > Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as > > in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better > > choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash". > > > > I would like to clean up our documentation to consistently use these > > words. Objections? > My full support. :} I like clarity, specially on such important things > as communication! > > > > (Who says were obsessive?) :-) Ah, someone already got me with were -> we're. "Who says we're obsessive?" Perfect! -- Bruce Momjian bruce@momjian.us EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +
Bruce Momjian a écrit : > Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways: > > may - permission, "You may borrow my rake." > > can - ability, "I can lift that log." > > might - possibility, "It might rain today." > > Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as > in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better > choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash". > > I would like to clean up our documentation to consistently use these > words. Objections? > No objections at all... it can only ease translations. > (Who says were obsessive?) :-) > :) -- Guillaume. <!-- http://abs.traduc.org/ http://lfs.traduc.org/ http://docs.postgresqlfr.org/ -->
"Bruce Momjian" <bruce@momjian.us> writes: > (Who says were obsessive?) :-) I may not fall into your clever trap... -- Gregory Stark EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com
On 1/30/07, Gregory Stark <stark@enterprisedb.com> wrote: > > "Bruce Momjian" <bruce@momjian.us> writes: > > > (Who says were obsessive?) :-) > > I may not fall into your clever trap... But you certainly can! <cymbal_crash/> (sorry...) > > -- > Gregory Stark > EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- > TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate > subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly > -- Mike Rylander mrylander@gmail.com GPLS -- PINES Development Database Developer http://open-ils.org