On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:15:40 +0000 (GMT), David Sullivan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Nevertheless they're scruffy writing. On the Chinese cookery >programme on BBC2 last night the presenter definitely >said that her grandmother had been five when she let her >granddaughter help with the cooking. Yes, you could work out >what she meant, but logically the sentence was a mess. >If I made mistakes like that in my job (programmer) my >programs wouldn't work and I'd be out on my ear. > >Compare: >At the age of five, my grandmother started school. >At the age of five, my grandmother let me help with the cooking. But then programming (from what little I know of it) seems to involve writing in an artificial language (or set of languages) designed for communication with bits of silicon that lack the intelligence of humans. Logic is of relatively little importance in English; idiom, which might be regarded as the collective intelligence of the users of the language, is what matters. Vox populi, vox dei, to use another (by this stage) artificial language. bjg
