Nico Heinze wrote: > --- In [email protected], Rick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> At 7/22/2007 01:40 PM, you wrote: >>> --- In [email protected], mail.mastermind@ wrote: >>>> please tell this kid what is this below 8-o >>>> >>>> #include <stdio.h> >>>> main() >>>> { >>>> printf("\033[1;1H\033[2J"); >>>> } >>> <snip> >>> >>> First I'm no kid. Second I don't care; I know what ANSI >>> sequences are, and I can tell you that 3270 terminals >>> and all other mainframe related subsystems working in >>> EBCDIC don't care; and I can tell you that HP-UX do not >>> always care either. >>> So, why bother at all? Before insulting anyone (and "kid" >>> sounds like an insult to me in this context) please first >>> consider more thoroughly what you're about to write. >>> >>> Or prove to me that my statements above are wrong; then >>> I'll accept the "kid". >> Nico, >> >> I think the poster was referring to himself, and was asking for >> someone to explain the code. >> >> ~Rick > <snip> > > Hi Rick, Jan, and all others, > > thanks for pointing out to me that my knowledge of English language > still needs quite some improvement. Good to know. > And even better to see how far those "small" differences in culture > reach, that I even don't recognise such phrases as idioms. That tells > me that I have to be far more careful. Good thing. > > Regards, > Nico
Nico, "The Day After Tomorrow" (aka "The Sixth Column") by Robert Heinlein is an excellent read despite its obvious age. But even _I_ get somewhat lost at the part where the protagonist is attempting to communicate a jailbreak without alerting his foreign captors (who are monitoring the conversation) to the event. And I'm American Midwest English. English slang/idioms are extremely complex and very confusing to the non-initiated (i.e. you don't live here - even American Southern English slang is different from my area). Or take "NUTS!" One of my favorite responses of all time. It was the response by McAuliffe to a request to surrender by the German high command during WWII during the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne. Apparently a popular American phrase at the time meaning "nuts to you" (more commonly today: "tough bananas" or "tough noogies"). Essentially meaning, "that's too bad for you because we're refusing what you want AND we're going to stick with our choice regardless of the outcome". I caught the gist of the person's reply but there was no way for a non-American English speaker to figure out what the person was saying. Nico, despite your outstanding English skills, you would actually have to live here for several years before our slang/idioms would become natural. And slang changes meaning/usefulness over time too. -- Thomas Hruska CubicleSoft President Ph: 517-803-4197 *NEW* MyTaskFocus 1.1 Get on task. Stay on task. http://www.CubicleSoft.com/MyTaskFocus/
