From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e382b50ddc696050 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-12-07 10:59:52 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!hub1.nntpserver.com!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator-la!news-in-la.newsfeeds.com!news-in.superfeed.net!newsranger.com!www.newsranger.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Ted Dennison References: <3C0DB9D0.7184868A@acm.org> <3C0EB851.77E7172A@boeing.com> <3C0FAF78.6F006DF7@boeing.com> Subject: Re: List Strawman JC01 Message-ID: X-Abuse-Info: When contacting newsranger.com regarding abuse please X-Abuse-Info: forward the entire news article including headers or X-Abuse-Info: else we will not be able to process your request X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsranger.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 13:59:35 EST Organization: http://www.newsranger.com Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 18:59:35 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:17606 Date: 2001-12-07T18:59:35+00:00 List-Id: In article , Stephen Leake says... > >I don't think "Front" and "Back" are significantly more >"directionless" than "First" and "Last". "A" and "B" would be more >directionless, although even those have an alphabetical order. I thought a lot about this, and I couldn't really come up with anything more neutral. "A" and "B" (or "A" and "Z") do imply an order (alphabetical). "First" and "Last" obviously do too for the same reason. Even "Left" and "Right" imply an order (reading order). That order is different for some people than it is for others, but each individual reader will have a specific order it implies to them. "Front" and "Back" may have a certian implication of order, but its not very strong. I go front to back in a book, but back to front in a line (queue for non-americans). If my 6 year old were to ask me which comes first, "Front" or "Back" (he often asks questions like that), I'd have to ask for context, or declare it a nonsensical question. >> The answer of course is that you *can't*. > >Ok, but neither can I find the "Front"! Quite True. But you can find the ends, and we do have to arbitrarily label each end *something*. We just have to find nice linear but direction-neutral somethings to name them. --- T.E.D. homepage - http://www.telepath.com/dennison/Ted/TED.html No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.