From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Oliver Hartkopp Subject: Re: [PATCH] NET: fix wrong English expression in comments Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:52:57 +0100 Message-ID: <496C5669.4040407@hartkopp.net> References: <496a3c51.09876e0a.03fe.7e80@mx.google.com> <496A9753.80802@cn.fujitsu.com> <6b1ba94c0901122336r511fa316o5f520a8d2d9d6e0@mail.gmail.com> <20090112.234441.131571840.davem@davemloft.net> <496C4987.8040803@cosmosbay.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: David Miller , joe.tian.kernel@gmail.com, lizf@cn.fujitsu.com, qhfeng.kernel@gmail.com, netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To: Eric Dumazet Return-path: Received: from mo-p00-ob.rzone.de ([81.169.146.162]:63910 "EHLO mo-p00-ob.rzone.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755580AbZAMIxF (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:53:05 -0500 In-Reply-To: <496C4987.8040803@cosmosbay.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Eric Dumazet wrote: > David Miller a =E9crit : > =20 >> From: joe tian >> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:36:51 +0800 >> >> =20 >>> 2009/1/12 Li Zefan : >>> =20 >>>>> @@ -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 >>>>> =20 >>>> They are the same meaning... >>>> >>>> =20 >>> 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" >>> =20 >> 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. >> =20 > > 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,=20 > writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms are also sometimes=20 > 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=20 that are familiar with these colloquialisms? I also would have to think longer about the current comment than i woul= d=20 have to on the patched one. When we reduce parentheses and have coding style definitions to make th= e=20 reading of source code easy and fast - why don't we fix these=20 colloquialisms that are confusing non-native English speakers? I personally would vote for this particular patch - but i assume=20 thousands of these patches might jam the mailing lists then :-( Regards, Oliver