demerphq wrote:
Both wrong, as Piotr says. "Effect" means "to cause to exist" in both
these usages; affect would mean "to change the state of something
already existing". So in the first case we want an early exit to happen
that has not yet happened: effect. In the second case we want to make a
250 ms wait happen: effect. If we wanted to change an existing 250 ms
wait, then we would be affecting it.
Perhaps this should use neither "affect" nor "effect". If native
english speakers are going to debate which is appropriate then non
native speakers shouldnt have to deal with it at all.
Don't worry too much about non-native speakers regarding this problem.
We make completely different kinds of errors with English than the
natives, and sometimes are surprised by the problems the native speakers
have. This is one example; being a Spanish speaker who learned English
mainly by reading, I have no trouble with affect/effect because I don't
care if they sound the same or not, and they look similar to Spanish
words with similar meanings, but clearly different spelling and and
pronunciation, and that no native Spanish speaker that I know would
confuse. Affect ~ "afectar"; effect ~ "efectuar". I can't say about
people who come from other languages, of course.
Same with the confusion between "its" and "it's"; I think this error
might be more common among native speakers than among non-natives.
Change it to "Thus C<last> can be used to _cause_ an early" (without
emphasis) and the problem goes away. And IMO reads better anyway.
However, I have nothing against this alternative phrasing, which should
solve the problem for everyone.
Ivan
