Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.python > #6686

Re: Beginner needs advice

Show all headers | View raw

On Tue, 31 May 2011 01:32:01 +0100, harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net>  
wrote:

> Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> Compatibility is inherently continuous, a matter
>> of degree.
>
>     Compatible by degrees is incompatible. Just 'how' incompatible  
> determines whether the factor(s) are utterly useless, or just difficult  
> to negotiate.
>
> (uh, oh,... me suspects another analogy fallacy coming up... )
>
>> This is especially true when it comes to languages, both natural and
>> programming.
>
>      ( Yup...  analogy fallacy for Ænglisc speakers... )

I don't know about you, but I speak English not "Anglish".  This is how an  
aesc is pronounced, after all.

>> British English and American English are perhaps 99.5%
>> compatible, but "table a motion" means completely opposite things in
>> British and American English. (In Britain, it means to deal with it
>> immediately; in the USA, it means to postpone it.) Should we conclude
>> from this that British and American English are "different languages"  
>> and
>> "completely incompatible"?
>
>     We Americans have not spoken 'English' in well over two hundred  
> years...   :)          roflol

Quite the contrary, in fact.  Much American usage of English actually  
better preserves the styles of eighteenth century English usage, having  
managed to avoid some of the "corrections" of Victorian grammarians.

>     However, I guarantee that if I'm dumped unaided in Piccadilly I'll  
> be able to hail a cab, pay my £12.00 and get myself to Liverpool Street  
> Station, find the bathroom, and be on the correct train just in time for  
> dinner, all without looking into the English dictionary.

And I guarantee that you'd get odd looks for at least one of those.  You  
may not notice; we Brits are used to translating the large amount of US TV  
we get back into British English.

>     On the other hand (playing along with this analogy fallacy) if I  
> dump a python newbie unaided in the middle of 2.5 and ask them to format  
> a simple polytonic Greek unicode string and output it with print to  
> stdout (redirected to a file) they will fail... maybe even if they have  
> a dictionary !

Now this is an analogy fallacy, and an obvious one at that.

-- 
Rhodri James *-* Wildebeest Herder to the Masses

Back to comp.lang.python | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: Beginner needs advice "Colin J. Williams" <cjw@ncf.ca> - 2011-05-25 08:57 -0400
  Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-27 09:40 -0500
    Re: Beginner needs advice Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-27 15:52 +0000
      Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-27 15:40 -0500
        Re: Beginner needs advice Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-28 09:09 +1000
          Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-27 20:02 -0500
            Re: Beginner needs advice Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2011-05-27 18:30 -0700
              Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-28 14:21 -0500
                Re: Beginner needs advice Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 05:47 +1000
                Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-28 21:02 -0500
                Re: Beginner needs advice Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 12:26 +1000
                Re: Beginner needs advice Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-29 14:09 +0000
                Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-30 19:32 -0500
                Re: Beginner needs advice "Rhodri James" <rhodri@wildebst.demon.co.uk> - 2011-05-31 01:58 +0100
                Re: Beginner needs advice Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2011-05-30 22:20 -0700
                Re: Beginner needs advice Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2011-05-31 15:48 +1000
                Re: Beginner needs advice MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2011-05-31 17:59 +0100
                Re: Beginner needs advice Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2011-05-31 10:22 -0700
                Re: Beginner needs advice Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-05-30 21:34 -0400
                Re: Beginner needs advice Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-05-30 21:47 -0400
                Re: Beginner needs advice Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2011-05-30 22:20 -0700
                Re: Beginner needs advice Benjamin Kaplan <benjamin.kaplan@case.edu> - 2011-05-30 22:35 -0700
            Re: Beginner needs advice Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-28 05:40 +0000
        Re: Beginner needs advice Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-28 06:15 +0000
          Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-28 21:33 -0500
            Re: Beginner needs advice Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 02:06 -0600
              Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-30 19:43 -0500
                Re: Beginner needs advice Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-30 19:16 -0600
                Re: Beginner needs advice Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-31 12:27 +1000
                Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-30 22:02 -0500
            Re: Beginner needs advice Jason Tackaberry <tack@urandom.ca> - 2011-05-29 15:28 -0400
              Re: Beginner needs advice rantingrick <rantingrick@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 16:00 -0700
                Re: Beginner needs advice Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-30 09:31 +1000
              Re: Beginner needs advice harrismh777 <harrismh777@charter.net> - 2011-05-30 19:44 -0500
            Re: Beginner needs advice rantingrick <rantingrick@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 15:15 -0700
            Re: Beginner needs advice Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> - 2011-05-31 20:56 +0300
            Re: Beginner needs advice Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2011-05-31 12:29 -0600
            Re: Beginner needs advice Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> - 2011-05-31 21:42 +0300
        Re: Beginner needs advice Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 08:46 +0300
      Re: Beginner needs advice Thomas Rachel <nutznetz-0c1b6768-bfa9-48d5-a470-7603bd3aa915@spamschutz.glglgl.de> - 2011-05-28 07:06 +0200
        Re: Beginner needs advice Thorsten Kampe <thorsten@thorstenkampe.de> - 2011-05-28 08:38 +0200
          Re: Beginner needs advice Thorsten Kampe <thorsten@thorstenkampe.de> - 2011-05-28 08:42 +0200
          Re: Beginner needs advice Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-28 16:44 +1000
          Re: Beginner needs advice Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-05-28 08:13 +0000
        Re: Beginner needs advice "D'Arcy J.M. Cain" <darcy@druid.net> - 2011-05-28 08:38 -0400

csiph-web