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

Groups > comp.arch.embedded > #29428

Re: On log or in log?

Show all headers | View raw

On 4/12/2020 13:18, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 04/11/2020 05:04 PM, Theo wrote:
>> Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> wrote:
>>> I see now I put my question in a misleading way. Obviously I know
>>> to "write to the log", append to the log etc., this was not the point.
>>>
>>> I should have asked "is something in the log or is it on the log".
>>> Say, like something is "on the menu".
>>>
>>> Phil understood me and his answer was what I was after though.
>>
>> The etymology is a contraction of log-book, being a book with which you
>> record (among other things) the speed of your vessel that you measured by
>> throwing wooden logs over the side of the ship and seeing how fast 
>> they go
>> out behind you.
>>
>> So you would be writing 'in' the log-book and hence writing in the log.
>>
>> However if it was a log-file rather than a log-book, it wouldn't be 
>> wrong to
>> say you were writing to the log-file and hence writing to the log.
>> (and similar for other kinds of objects that don't open and close, like a
>> log-chart, log-board or log-sheet)
>>
>> Hence either of those feel fine to me, but writing 'on' the log doesn't.
>>
>> Theo
>>
> 
> This thread is a chuckle as it proves once again that English is a 
> strange language. In it "one parks a car in a driveway" while "driving a 
> car on a parkway".
> 
> 

Oh it is not just English. All languages I have used (well, just 4) have
plenty of lookup table rules.  E.g. in German the gender is "by table",
more or less like spelling is in English etc.

To a programmer it is funny that something is "on the menu" and, as it
turned out, "in the log". Suspicious enough to make me ask though :-).
But I did not suspect any part of Theo's explanation of how the word
"log" got the meaning it has in programming today... I did know a log
was some piece of wood but there is no chance I would have made
the leap from piece of wood to throwing some into the water to measure
boat velocity (or sort of).

Dimiter

Back to comp.arch.embedded | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-11 19:33 +0300
  Re: On log or in log? Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> - 2020-04-11 12:45 -0400
    Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-11 21:06 +0300
  Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-11 09:50 -0700
    Re: On log or in log? Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2020-04-11 20:10 +0200
  Re: On log or in log? Dave Nadler <drn@nadler.com> - 2020-04-11 14:10 -0700
    Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-11 14:21 -0700
    Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-12 00:34 +0300
      Re: On log or in log? Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2020-04-11 23:04 +0100
        Re: On log or in log? Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2020-04-12 05:18 -0500
          Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-12 03:24 -0700
            Re: On log or in log? Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2020-04-12 16:08 +0100
              Re: On log or in log? Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2020-04-12 12:27 -0500
          Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-12 18:25 +0300
            Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-12 11:34 -0700
              Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-12 21:59 +0300
                Re: On log or in log? Dave Nadler <drn@nadler.com> - 2020-04-12 13:09 -0700
                Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-12 23:29 +0300
                Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-12 14:59 -0700
                Re: On log or in log? Phil Martel <pomartel@comcast.net> - 2020-04-13 11:12 -0400
                Re: On log or in log? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-04-13 15:41 +0200
                Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-13 09:58 -0700
                Re: On log or in log? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-04-13 19:11 +0200
                Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-13 10:25 -0700
            Re: On log or in log? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-04-13 15:12 +0200
            Re: On log or in log? Phil Martel <pomartel@comcast.net> - 2020-04-13 11:03 -0400
          Re: On log or in log? Tom Gardner <spamjunk@blueyonder.co.uk> - 2020-04-12 16:41 +0100
      Re: On log or in log? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-04-12 18:00 +0200
        Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-12 21:51 +0300
          Re: On log or in log? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2020-04-13 15:47 +0200
            Re: On log or in log? Dimiter_Popoff <dp@tgi-sci.com> - 2020-04-13 17:47 +0300
        Re: On log or in log? Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net> - 2020-04-13 09:53 +1000
          Re: On log or in log? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2020-04-12 18:29 -0700
      Re: On log or in log? queequeg@trust.no1 (Queequeg) - 2020-04-14 09:56 +0000

csiph-web