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Re: How far back can we go?

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In article <254b4302-0ed5-48cb-9c6f-4a6fd13fa369@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com>,
Lew  <comp.lang.java.help@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> On Monday, August 29, 2011 9:03:01 AM UTC-7, blmblm @ myrealbox. com wrote:
> > In article <c4237952-f387-4773...@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com>,
> > Lew  <comp.lang...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> > > blmblm @ myrealbox. com wrote:
> > > > Lew wrote:
> > > >> If the books were good, they've been updated and you can use the new
> > > >> editions.
> > > > 
> > > > I'm far from convinced that the correlation between quality and
> > > > updates is as strong as you seem to be saying it is.  It seems to
> > > > me that whether a book gets updated depends not so much on quality
> > > > as on whether the author is interested in doing an update and the
> > > > publisher is interested in publishing it.  ?

[ snip ]

> > > So our disagreement rests on the definition of "quality".  It may
> > > have been a great book in its day, but if that day doesn't help
> > > this day then it's no longer a great book by the pragmatic
> > > definition of, "What has it done for me lately?"
> > 
> > Well, no, with all due respect I don't think that's at all the point
> > I was trying to make.  You said "if the books *were* [emphasis mine]
> > good, they've been updated", and that's what I'm skeptical about --
> > whether a lack of updates necessarily indicates that the book wasn't
> > very good to begin with.
> 
> My comment was not the past tense but in the conditional tense.

Probably my addition of emphasis didn't make this especially clear,
but I think that's exactly how I interpreted it -- I understood you
to mean "if the books had ever been good, then they would have been
updated".  

> Example, "If you were a grammar freak, you would know the 
> conditional tense."

A grammar freak as opposed to a pedantic prescriptivist with very
little knowledge of formal grammatical rules?  :-)  (I had to look
up "conditional tense", it not being a term I recognize.)

> Understandable confusion, but the lead-in "if" is a good clue.  
> 
> Regardless, I agree with your point that the books may have had good
> quality for their now-irrelevant context.
> 
> -- 
> Lew
> Oh, would that people still used the subjunctive!

-- 
B. L. Massingill
ObDisclaimer:  I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor.

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How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-27 08:15 +0200
  Re: How far back can we go? jaap <niemand@meel.homelinux.net> - 2011-08-27 10:11 +0200
    Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-27 01:29 -0700
    Re: How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-28 07:46 +0200
      Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-28 02:17 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 12:07 +0000
          Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 08:25 -0700
            Re: How far back can we go? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 16:03 +0000
              Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 09:19 -0700
                Re: How far back can we go? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 14:28 +0000
  Re: How far back can we go? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-08-29 04:16 -0700
  Re: How far back can we go? Steve <tinker123@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 10:03 -0400
    Re: How far back can we go? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-08-29 14:06 -0700
      Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 14:30 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-08-30 08:28 -0500
          Re: How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-31 06:44 +0200
            Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 22:21 -0700
      Re: How far back can we go? Steve <tinker123@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 10:51 -0400
        Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-30 09:30 -0700
    Re: How far back can we go? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201108.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2011-08-30 01:48 +0200
      Re: How far back can we go? markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-29 18:53 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-29 19:06 -0700
        Re: How far back can we go? markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-29 20:05 -0700

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