Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[tmoran]

>whereas the FSF "free" is an abbreviation for "free of certain contractual
>restrictions".
  Or perhaps it means "free" in the same sense as "The homeless are
free of worry over mortgages or rent."

Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Ted Dennison]

In article <eFhM7.46638$RG1.24555639@news1.rdc1.sfba.home.com>, tmoran@acm.org
says...
>
>>whereas the FSF "free" is an abbreviation for "free of certain contractual
>>restrictions".
>  Or perhaps it means "free" in the same sense as "The homeless are
>free of worry over mortgages or rent."

More in the sense of the old saying "Its a free country". (Well, 200+ years old
here in the US anyway).

Its not saying that we can help ourselves to anything in the country without
paying. Its also not saying that the country itself is free for the taking by
anyone who wants to own it. Its also not saying that the leaders of the country
are free to impose whatever terms they want on us. It is saying the we (in this
case, the "users") have a very large amount of freedom with this country,
tempered mainly by prohibitions against depriving anyone else of that same
freedom.

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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Preben Randhol]

On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:45:27 GMT, Ted Dennison wrote:

> More in the sense of the old saying "Its a free country". (Well, 200+
> years old here in the US anyway).

Hmm, that depends on your definition of freedom.

Preben
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OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Larry Kilgallen]

Since certain people here in comp.lang.ada say that the English
word "free" is overloaded, perhaps someone could answer a slightly
off-topic question.  The choices in French, as I understand it, are
"libre" and "gratis".  Which one of those corresponds to the use of
"free" in the English phrase "bug-free" ?

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Jeffrey Carter]

Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> 
> Since certain people here in comp.lang.ada say that the English
> word "free" is overloaded, perhaps someone could answer a slightly
> off-topic question.  The choices in French, as I understand it, are
> "libre" and "gratis".  Which one of those corresponds to the use of
> "free" in the English phrase "bug-free" ?

Since "bug free" implies freedom from bugs, similar to freedom from
oppression, I would guess "libre". However, this really seems to be more
like a 3rd overloading of the word. The French would actually say
something along the lines of "sans insects".

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time."
Monty Python & the Holy Grail

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Jean-Marc Bourguet]

Jeffrey Carter <jrcarter@acm.org> writes:

> Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> > 
> > Since certain people here in comp.lang.ada say that the English
> > word "free" is overloaded, perhaps someone could answer a slightly
> > off-topic question.  The choices in French, as I understand it, are
> > "libre" and "gratis".  Which one of those corresponds to the use of
> > "free" in the English phrase "bug-free" ?
> 
> Since "bug free" implies freedom from bugs, similar to freedom from
> oppression, I would guess "libre". However, this really seems to be more
> like a 3rd overloading of the word. The French would actually say
> something along the lines of "sans insects".

That would be "sans insectes" but we use "bug" or "bogue" for this
meaning of bug, so "sans bogues", "sans bugs".  "Libre" is sometimes
used also with the meaning "without" so "libre de bugs/bogues" would
also be correct but I don't remeber seeing it used.

-- 
Jean-Marc

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[John English]

Jean-Marc Bourguet wrote:
> 
> That would be "sans insectes" but we use "bug" or "bogue" for this
> meaning of bug, so "sans bogues", "sans bugs".  "Libre" is sometimes
> used also with the meaning "without" so "libre de bugs/bogues" would
> also be correct but I don't remeber seeing it used.

"Bogue" is an interesting word -- what does it really mean? Is it
related to the English words "bogle" or "bogy" (both of which mean
a goblin)? As in "gremlin", maybe?

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Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Pascal Obry]

John English <je@brighton.ac.uk> writes:

> "Bogue" is an interesting word -- what does it really mean? Is it

I'm not sure it is so interesting. In France we like French word :), so we
have created many French words after English words and tried to keep the same
way to pronnouce it, some examples:

"bug"   -> "bogue"
"mail"  -> "m�l"
"CDROM" -> "c�d�rom"
...

The last one is certainly the most stupid in my view since we lose the
acronym!

Just my 2 cents,
Pascal.

-- 

--|------------------------------------------------------
--| Pascal Obry                           Team-Ada Member
--| 45, rue Gabriel Peri - 78114 Magny Les Hameaux FRANCE
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--| "The best way to travel is by means of imagination"

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[Adrian Knoth]

Pascal Obry <p.obry@wanadoo.fr> wrote:

>> "Bogue" is an interesting word -- what does it really mean? Is it
> I'm not sure it is so interesting. In France we like French word :), 

So much that you don't call it byte, but octet :)

> The last one is certainly the most stupid in my view 

We here in Germany do it quite the other way round. We directly use
the English term. That's why a special computer (sorry, l'ordinateur :)
slang appeared and non-technical people were no longer able to follow.
But that doesn't really matter, because not understanding the terms
also means not to understand the plot. :)))

I could get amused about these differences. The cellphone, the mobile
and wireless phone, is strange, too. In English it is cellphone,
the Germans call it "Handy" (pronounced English, means "to hold it
in the hand") and for the Frenchs it is nomade, which would (for us)
mean "not to settle down" - "moving around, itinerant".


-- 
mail: adi@thur.de  	http://adi.thur.de	PGP: v2-key via keyserver

KAWASAKI: Kaum auszuhalten was alles so am Klappern ist

Re: OT: Meaning of the word "free"

[John English]

Adrian Knoth wrote:
> I could get amused about these differences. The cellphone, the mobile
> and wireless phone, is strange, too. In English it is cellphone,
> the Germans call it "Handy" (pronounced English, means "to hold it
> in the hand") and for the Frenchs it is nomade, which would (for us)
> mean "not to settle down" - "moving around, itinerant".

I think Americans call them cellphones, but in the UK they're "mobiles"
(or as they become ubiquitous, just plain "phones").

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 Senior Lecturer           | http://www.comp.it.bton.ac.uk/je
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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Ted Dennison]

In article <3C021EA6.4221485E@brighton.ac.uk>, John English says...
>
>I think Americans call them cellphones, but in the UK they're "mobiles"
>(or as they become ubiquitous, just plain "phones").

"Cell phone", yes. Its two words. Its short for "cellular phone". The companies
selling them like to shorten it to just "cellular" (as they sell non-phone
functionality as well), but you don't hear people on the street using that one
much.

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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <LfwM7.38232$xS6.62450@www.newsranger.com>, Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com> writes:
> In article <3C021EA6.4221485E@brighton.ac.uk>, John English says...
>>
>>I think Americans call them cellphones, but in the UK they're "mobiles"
>>(or as they become ubiquitous, just plain "phones").
> 
> "Cell phone", yes. Its two words. Its short for "cellular phone". The companies
> selling them like to shorten it to just "cellular" (as they sell non-phone
> functionality as well), but you don't hear people on the street using that one
> much.

US companies selling such service other than on the original 800 Mhz
"A carrier" and "B carrier" AMPS service often use the term "wireless"
to indicate that what they offer is somehow not "cellular" in nature.

To the best of my knowledge, only satellite phones and home-based
good-for-300-feet-from-the-base-station phones are "wireless" but
not "cellular" in nature.  Non-AMPS service may have cells of different
sizes, but that does not make them non-cells.

Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[John English]

Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> US companies selling such service other than on the original 800 Mhz
> "A carrier" and "B carrier" AMPS service often use the term "wireless"
> to indicate that what they offer is somehow not "cellular" in nature.

Hmm, In the UK "the wireless" is what my parents used to listen to
before they started calling it "the radio" (i.e in the days of the
BBC broadcasting "the Home Service", "the Light Programme" and "the
Third Programme" before they became BBC Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 3
respectively).

Two countries separated by a common language, eh?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
 John English              | mailto:je@brighton.ac.uk
 Senior Lecturer           | http://www.comp.it.bton.ac.uk/je
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Re: OT: Meaning of the word

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <3C037B03.5DDA76F7@brighton.ac.uk>, John English <je@brighton.ac.uk> writes:
> Larry Kilgallen wrote:
>> US companies selling such service other than on the original 800 Mhz
>> "A carrier" and "B carrier" AMPS service often use the term "wireless"
>> to indicate that what they offer is somehow not "cellular" in nature.
> 
> Hmm, In the UK "the wireless" is what my parents used to listen to
> before they started calling it "the radio" (i.e in the days of the
> BBC broadcasting "the Home Service", "the Light Programme" and "the
> Third Programme" before they became BBC Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 3
> respectively).

That use of the term applied in the United States as well.

> Two countries separated by a common language, eh?

Obviously the US is more Ada-like with its use of overloading :-)