Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new)

From	Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject	Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new)
Date	2011-06-22 20:02 +0100
Organization	Stack Usenet News Service
Message-ID	<alpine.DEB.2.00.1106222001180.10728@urchin.earth.li> (permalink)
References	(4 earlier) <969kqsFjduU5@mid.individual.net> <4lPLp.1825$Q35.13@newsfe13.iad> <alpine.DEB.2.00.1106212257590.6476@urchin.earth.li> <QY9Mp.28015$F25.23411@newsfe04.iad> <nospam-BE4336.23005721062011@news.aioe.org>

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On Tue, 21 Jun 2011, John B. Matthews wrote:

> In article <QY9Mp.28015$F25.23411@newsfe04.iad>,
> Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> wrote:
>
>> On 11-06-21 07:29 PM, Tom Anderson wrote:
>>> On Mon, 20 Jun 2011, Arved Sandstrom wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 11-06-20 04:19 PM, blmblm@myrealbox.com wrote:
>>>>> In article <fB1Lp.9356$PA5.814@newsfe01.iad>,
>>>>> Arved Sandstrom  <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> wrote:
>>>> [ SNIP ]
>>>>
>>>>>> The best measure of this detailed design document that I
>>>>>> produced is that, in marked contrast to the usual design docs
>>>>>> that floated around that office, the higher up the food chain
>>>>>> you went with it, the less people were able to understand it.
>>>>>
>>>>> "Less" or "fewer"?  (You probably do mean "less", but the
>>>>> widespread practice of using the former to mean the latter means
>>>>> that one can't really be sure, maybe.)
>>>>
>>>> I did mean less, but by definition you also would have had fewer
>>>> people able to understand it. :-)
>>>
>>> This less/fewer thing is largely dubious:
>>>
>>> http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/495/less-vs-fewer/505#505
>>>
>>> I don't think it's defensible to say that Arved's sentence was
>>> incorrect. Lots of people might not write it that way, but lots
>>> would, and everyone understands it.
>>>
>> In fact, in the original construction, if I had written
>>
>> "the fewer people were able to understand it"
>>
>> that would have been stilted and wrong. It's the "the" there that
>> makes all the difference. I could have written
>>
>> "...went with it, fewer people were able to understand it."
>>
>> and that would be OK (if still marginally US Constitution-sounding
>> like).
>>
>> "The less" in my construction actually operates as a single unit.
>> Although I'm not sure what part of a sentence it corresponds to.
>
> I read "less" as an adverb modifying "able", moved to enhance
> parallelism: "The higher ... the less able ..."

As in "... the degree to which people were able to understand it was 
less". Yes, Arved was entirely right the first time.

Now, on reading your rephrasing, it sounds like you're implying that as 
you move higher, the people get less able!

tom

-- 
No noon today. Noon tomorrow. There's always a noon tomorrow.

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Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Abu Yahya <abu_yahya@invalid.com> - 2011-06-11 22:43 +0530
  Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new David Lamb <dalamb@cs.queensu.ca> - 2011-06-11 13:46 -0400
  Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-11 19:49 +0200
    Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-11 11:04 -0700
      Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Abu Yahya <abu_yahya@invalid.com> - 2011-06-11 23:52 +0530
      Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-12 14:05 +0200
        Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-12 07:10 -0700
          Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-12 14:37 +0000
            Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-12 18:17 +0200
              Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-06-12 15:25 -0400
            Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-15 06:58 -0700
              Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Nigel Wade <nmw-news@ion.le.ac.uk> - 2011-06-16 10:16 +0100
          Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-12 18:10 +0200
    Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Abu Yahya <abu_yahya@invalid.com> - 2011-06-11 23:53 +0530
      Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-06-11 15:43 -0400
        Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-06-11 15:50 -0400
          Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-15 06:49 -0700
            Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-16 11:21 -0400
              Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new lewbloch <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-06-17 06:45 -0700
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-17 12:29 -0400
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Lewis Bloch <lewisbloch@google.com> - 2011-06-17 11:07 -0700
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-06-18 02:01 -0400
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-18 10:19 -0300
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-18 20:16 +0200
                OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-06-20 19:19 +0000
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-20 20:46 +0000
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-06-21 20:42 +0000
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-21 14:22 -0700
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-20 18:55 -0300
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-06-21 23:29 +0100
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-21 20:39 -0300
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2011-06-21 23:00 -0400
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-06-22 20:02 +0100
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-06-22 20:03 +0000
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-23 12:04 -0400
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-23 11:58 -0400
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2011-06-20 14:01 -0700
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-06-20 18:53 -0300
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-21 19:53 -0400
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-06-22 20:01 +0000
                Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Michael Wojcik <mwojcik@newsguy.com> - 2011-06-23 12:16 -0400
                OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2011-06-20 19:18 +0000
                Re: OT language stuff (was Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new) Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-06-20 20:52 +0000
        Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-06-12 14:14 +0200
  Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-06-11 11:01 -0700
  Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-06-13 06:16 -0700
  Re: Class.forName().newInstance() vs new Ian Shef <invalid@avoiding.spam> - 2011-06-14 20:07 +0000

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