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On 2015-03-03 01:44, Mark Lawrence wrote:
> On 03/03/2015 00:23, Sturla Molden wrote:
>> Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Variations in idiom and spelling are a good thing. They open our minds to
>>> new possibilities, remind us that we aren't all the same, and keep life
>>> fresh. I remember the first time I realised that when Indians talk about "a
>>> code" they aren't using "wrong English", they are using a regional
>>> variation. In British and American English, "code" in the programming
>>> sense[2] is a mass or uncountable noun, like air[3], milk, music and
>>> housework.
>>
>> I can assure you that in a veterinary sence, Yersey cows will produce a
>> milk with higher fat content.
>
> Yersey?
>
>>
>> In a lingustic sence the "a" is not a count -- that would be the word "one"
>> --, it is the indefinite article. Here is the difference:
>>
>> The Enigma machine produced a code that only Alan Turing could break. If I
>> say the Enigma machine produced one code that only Alan Turing could break,
>> it means all the other codes could be broken by someone else.
>
> No, it wasn't "a code" because not all the Enigma codes were broken.
>
>>
>> What if I say "this file contains a long Fortran code"? Or what if I say
>> "this file contains one long Fortran code"? There is a subtile difference
>> in meaning here.
>>
>
> You might think so but I disagree, in UK English it means one and the
> same thing, there is so subtle difference at all.
>
There might be a difference, like that between "this program contains a
bug" and "this program contains one bug".