(Still OT) Nationalism, language and monoculture [was Re: Python Worst Practices]

[Mark Lawrence]

On 03/03/2015 00:23, Sturla Molden wrote:
> Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at 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.

-- 
My fellow Pythonistas, ask not what our language can do for you, ask
what you can do for our language.

Mark Lawrence