Is marketing speak in Ada wikibook o.K.?

Is marketing speak in Ada wikibook o.K.?

[Georg Bauhaus]

The following two sentences are from the wikibook on Ada Programming
(which seems somewhat prominent). They start the section on generics.

"The idea of code reusability arises because of the necessity to construct
 programs on the basis of well established building blocks that can be
 combined to form an ampler and complex system. The reusability of code
 improves the productivity and the quality of software."

No offense intended, but do they actually say much at all?
Do they teach generics, specifically?
To me, they sound almost---without wanting to rebuke authors--like
having been dropped from Gautier's CBSG.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ada_Programming/Generics

Re: Is marketing speak in Ada wikibook o.K.?

[Adam Beneschan]

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012 7:14:42 AM UTC-7, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> The following two sentences are from the wikibook on Ada Programming
> (which seems somewhat prominent). They start the section on generics.
> 
> "The idea of code reusability arises because of the necessity to construct
>  programs on the basis of well established building blocks that can be
>  combined to form an ampler and complex system. The reusability of code
>  improves the productivity and the quality of software."
> 
> No offense intended, but do they actually say much at all?
> Do they teach generics, specifically?
> To me, they sound almost---without wanting to rebuke authors--like
> having been dropped from Gautier's CBSG.

I don't have a problem with it.  Too much "cheerleading" would be embarrassing, but this doesn't seem like too much, and it can't hurt to remind programmers to try to write code in a way that parts of it can be reused.  I do have a problem with the word "ampler", though, which is not a word I've ever heard or seen used in English--and I'm a native (American) English speaker, 51 years old.  It looked like a typo at first.  Even when I figured out that it wasn't a typo and figured out what the word was, it still was confusing.  My guess is that this was written by a non-native English speaker, and they just meant "bigger" but perhaps tried to use a thesaurus to come up with a more interesting word, which doesn't always work if you don't have a good understanding of the connotations.

                            -- Adam

Re: Is marketing speak in Ada wikibook o.K.?

[Manuel Gomez]

16/10/12 19:18, Adam Beneschan wrote:
 > On Tuesday, October 16, 2012 7:14:42 AM UTC-7, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
 >> The following two sentences are from the wikibook on Ada
 >> Programming (which seems somewhat prominent). They start the
 >> section on generics.
 >>
 >> "The idea of code reusability arises because of the necessity to
 >> construct programs on the basis of well established building
 >> blocks that can be combined to form an ampler and complex system.
 >> The reusability of code improves the productivity and the quality
 >> of software."
 >>
 >> No offense intended, but do they actually say much at all? Do they
 >> teach generics, specifically? To me, they sound almost---without
 >> wanting to rebuke authors--like having been dropped from Gautier's
 >> CBSG.

That's my fault. I translated that paragraph from the equivalent Ada
wikibook in Spanish. You'r right, the original is a bit pompous (I hope
this translates well from "ampuloso") and my translation is even worse,
due to lack of language skill.

 > I don't have a problem with it.  Too much "cheerleading" would be
 > embarrassing, but this doesn't seem like too much, and it can't hurt
 > to remind programmers to try to write code in a way that parts of it
 > can be reused.  I do have a problem with the word "ampler", though,
 > which is not a word I've ever heard or seen used in English--and I'm
 > a native (American) English speaker, 51 years old.  It looked like a
 > typo at first.  Even when I figured out that it wasn't a typo and
 > figured out what the word was, it still was confusing.

 > My guess is that this was written by a non-native English speaker,

You guessed right! Much of the wikibook have been written by non-native 
English speakers. English is nowadays the lingua franca for engineering. 
Please, forgive our mistakes. It is difficult to write or speak a 
foreign language. You are lucky!

 > and they just meant "bigger" but perhaps tried to use a thesaurus to
 > come up with a more interesting word, which doesn't always work if
 > you don't have a good understanding of the connotations.

Ampler is my poor translation of "m�s amplio". What do you think of 
writing "wider" instead?

By the way, Wikipedia and Wikibooks culture says: be bold in editing!
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Be_bold

Re: Is marketing speak in Ada wikibook o.K.?

[Robert A Duff]

Manuel Gomez <mgrojo@gmail.com> writes:

> You guessed right! Much of the wikibook have been written by non-native
> English speakers. English is nowadays the lingua franca for
> engineering. Please, forgive our mistakes. It is difficult to write or
> speak a foreign language. You are lucky!

Its difficult indeed!  You're misteaks are forgiven.

OK, let me try again:

It's difficult indeed!  Your mistakes are forgiven.

> Ampler is my poor translation of "m�s amplio". What do you think of
> writing "wider" instead?

"Wider" works better than "ampler", but
I suggest "...to form larger systems."

- Bob

Re: Is marketing speak in Ada wikibook o.K.?

[Adam Beneschan]

On Tuesday, October 16, 2012 12:35:41 PM UTC-7, Manuel Gomez wrote:

> Ampler is my poor translation of "más amplio". What do you think of 
> writing "wider" instead?

Ah, I see.  I don't speak enough Spanish to know about the word "amplio", so it didn't occur to me that that's where the word came from.  Wider doesn't seem correct either; I like Bob's suggestion.

At least you spelled everything correctly.  Many American writers would have used the right words but would have misspelled a bunch of them.  :(

                      -- Adam