From: Brian Rogoff <bpr@shell5.ba.best.com>
Subject: Re: Two simple language questions (plural types)
Date: 1998/01/11
Date: 1998-01-11T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980111154626.4941C-100000@shell5.ba.best.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 697p89$b5j@top.mitre.org
On 10 Jan 1998, Michael F Brenner wrote:
> My recommendation, in order for all Ada declarative and imperative
> sentences to read as in English (or any other Indo-European
> language, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Russian, etc.),
> is that almost all objects be singular, all array objects be singular,
> and all types be plural.
Well, that's your opinion, and I don't share it. I really don't think I'd
use that convention at all, and I don't find it intuitive. For types, I
use either an "_Type" or "_T" suffix, and if I have an access type "_PT".
This is obviously a matter of taste, GNAT code does not use suffixes to
distinguish types (though I've seen "_Ptr" in there), so I doubt that
specious analogies with natural language are helpful.
> This recommendation obviously does not apply to Semitic, Hamitic,
> Japanese, or Chinese languages, where the concept of plurals is not like
> the concept in Indo-European languages; in those languages plurals are
> often not even expressed.
OK, I'll bite. My Hebrew is quite rusty, but I'm pretty sure that plurals
are often expressed, and the concept is the same as in English (e.g.
cherub, cherubim). I'm also pretty sure Arabic is similar, though it
has a "dual" form when the number of objects is two. So what are you
talking about?
-- Brian
prev parent reply other threads:[~1998-01-11 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1998-01-07 0:00 Two simple language questions Chip Richards
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-07 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Two simple language questions (plural types) Michael F Brenner
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-10 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Distinguishing type names from other identifiers Nick Roberts
1998-01-13 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-14 0:00 ` Stephen Leake
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Anonymous
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-24 0:00 ` Pred Nick Roberts
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Distinguishing type names from other identifiers Matthew Heaney
1998-01-15 0:00 ` Aaro Koskinen
1998-01-17 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-17 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-25 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
[not found] ` <n5rs5FAStOz0Ew2+@dowie-cs.demon.co.uk>
1998-01-26 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-27 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1998-01-29 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff
1998-01-30 0:00 ` Mats Weber
1998-01-28 0:00 ` Martin M Dowie
1998-01-12 0:00 ` Two simple language questions (plural types) Brian Rogoff
1998-01-11 0:00 ` Brian Rogoff [this message]
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