On Thu, Apr 05, 2001 at 11:28:16AM +0200, Philip Newton wrote:
> Alex Page wrote:
> > When I was at prep school, my English teacher had lots of
> > little signs over the classroom walls saying things like
> > "It's not all right to say 'alright'", to drum little things
> > like that in.
> I h
From: "Dave Hodgkinson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> "Barbie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > Quite. I'm 35 and was given a good basic education at Primary school of
the
> > english language, together most of it's idyosyncrasies. I was lucky
enough
> > to go to a Grammar (when there were still such th
On Wed, 4 Apr 2001 12:16:18 +0100, Matthew Jones wrote:
> > I was at school from up to 1995 and grammer, hand writing and
> > similar were only lightly touched upon. IT was another subject that we
> > never actually did (other than read about spreadsheets leading to my
> > adult hatred of Excel)
Greg McCarroll IS Tommy Cooper!
Stand-up comedy slots at TPC would get my vote.
P
On Thu, Apr 05, 2001 at 02:29:09PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
> I was a cheeky brat as a child,
>
> I remember having an argument once with a teacher, whose comeback
> was - well if you don't study harder w
"Barbie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Quite. I'm 35 and was given a good basic education at Primary school of the
> english language, together most of it's idyosyncrasies. I was lucky enough
> to go to a Grammar (when there were still such things) so probably faired
> better than most.
Fared?
> Right, well there's the difference then. I'm 29 this year and I was
schooled
> during the seventies. Was anyone else of a similar age *not* taught proper
> punctuation and grammar at school? Back in those days, teachers actually
> taught you, as opposed to writing long essays to justify
performa
On Thu, Apr 05, 2001 at 02:29:09PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
> its amazing how hard it is to disguise the fact you just set fire to
> a roll of magnesium ribbon.
...but hardly surprising. :_)
One of the administrators of my school found me sitting out in the
hallway reading a book and ask
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 12:05:10PM +0100, Leon Brocard wrote:
>
> ObTopic:
[snip lots of stuff about perl]
Excuse me, where was the topical stuff there?
dha
--
David H. Adler - <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - http://www.panix.com/~dha/
Your Aunt Linda should maybe stay away from the Manischewitz. Or
s
An somewhat sceptical essay I wrote on whether psychology was a science
for my A' level psychology course came back with "You can argue that
psychology is a science, you can't argue that it isn't" written on it.
I thought that rather nicely proved my point.
Tony
* Simon Wistow ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> > Hey! I resemble that remark. I got send from school for a day after
> > being 'impolite to the teacher' when I refused (loudly) to accept his
> > version of the first moonlanding where Aldrin got out first.
>
> Had large arguments with English teacher
> Hey! I resemble that remark. I got send from school for a day after
> being 'impolite to the teacher' when I refused (loudly) to accept his
> version of the first moonlanding where Aldrin got out first.
Had large arguments with English teacher about Shylock in Merchant of
Venice. I was extremle
Quoting Steve Mynott ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> I remember arguing with a teacher who told us gravity was caused by
> the Earth spinning round who refused to accept that the child she was
> teaching actually knew more about it than her.
>
Hey! I resemble that remark. I got send from school for a day
Matthew Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Right, well there's the difference then. I'm 29 this year and I was schooled
> during the seventies. Was anyone else of a similar age *not* taught proper
> punctuation and grammar at school? Back in those days, teachers actually
> taught you, as opposed
dcross - David Cross <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> When I was at secondary school (75 - 79) ITA was used to teach reading to a
> remedial class. As (supposedly) one of the brighter pupils in my year, I got
> to spend a couple of hours a week helping out in this class, which is where
> I picked up
Alex Page wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:17:24AM -0700, Paul Makepeace wrote:
>
> > Me too, ('74 vintage) but I got learnt grammar. I think mostly by my
> > mother if truth be told. The rest I picked up from Latin :-/
>
> AOL. A strongly grammatical language like Latin really makes
> you t
On Thu, Apr 05, 2001 at 12:51:31AM -0400, Alex Page wrote:
> AOL. A strongly grammatical language like Latin really makes you think about your
>grammar in English. I did Latin to A-level, and remembering which form of qui to use
>in a given situation really helps you work out that whole who / wh
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:17:24AM -0700, Paul Makepeace wrote:
> Me too, ('74 vintage) but I got learnt grammar. I think mostly by my
> mother if truth be told. The rest I picked up from Latin :-/
AOL. A strongly grammatical language like Latin really makes you think about your
grammar in Engl
On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Mark Fowler wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:10:11PM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > > Ah, but with perl code there is a definite 'correct' parsing (whatever
> > > /usr/bin/perl does[1]) but with the English language that isn't tr
On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:10:11PM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > Ah, but with perl code there is a definite 'correct' parsing (whatever
> > /usr/bin/perl does[1]) but with the English language that isn't true.
>
> I'm afraid that's as silly as me declari
* Simon Cozens ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:10:11PM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > Ah, but with perl code there is a definite 'correct' parsing (whatever
> > /usr/bin/perl does[1]) but with the English language that isn't true.
>
> I'm afraid that's as silly as me declar
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:10:11PM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> Ah, but with perl code there is a definite 'correct' parsing (whatever
> /usr/bin/perl does[1]) but with the English language that isn't true.
I'm afraid that's as silly as me declaring that there's only one correct
parsing of English
> >Wrong. There was a concerted effort by the loony left to destroy
> >decent education in favour of whatever trendy piffle that was the
> >order of the day.
>
> >I had to unlearn the reading I knew before I went to school in favour
> >of some stupid phonetic system (anyone remember ITA?) in 1970
On 4 Apr 2001, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:
> Robin Houston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > I agree with you about education, but all the best punk bands
> > started off without the first idea how to play any of their
> > instruments :-)
>
> Stranglers? The Pistols?
>
> All had their fair share of mu
At 03:18 PM 4.4.2001 +0100, you wrote:
>The Ramones are *still* using the same three chords they
>were in the '70s.
You mean the Ramones got back together? Cool!
;)
(Well, they used the same three chords to the bitter end, but that's not quite what
you said. My brother has a live album that
> From: Dave Hodgkinson [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
And of course, the best English speakers are probably the Scots and
> the Welsh. Discuss!
>
I'm not so sure about the Welsh you know ;-)
Re. the Scots, me apart, it depends on which part of Scotland. Some of the
clearest and most pleasant English
"Clarke, Darren" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> An example (although slightly irrelevant to most of you it is still
> appropriate) I come from Luton. Most people who live there say "Lu'on" (or
> something). Many people have asked me over the years where I come from and
> don't believe me when I
Robin Houston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:00:08AM +0100, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:
> >
> > I'm as liberal as anyone here as far as creativity, expression,
> > society and the rest go, but there are certain fundamentals that you
> > need before you can go out and break t
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:10:40PM +0100, Clarke, Darren wrote:
> On the other hand not using decent grammar because it wasn't taught seems a
> bit lazy. Admittedly I'm not the best at written words in emails but I
> figure most intelligent people will rise above their background as the
> situati
> > > Perl is easier to parse simply because all the irregularities are known
> > > and documented. They're not in English. In addition to the above
> > Uhm, where?
> The perl source code *is* the documentation. There is no direct equivalent
> for the English language, as it is really whatever
On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:31:41AM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > Perl is easier to parse simply because all the irregularities are known
>
> > and documented. They're not in Englis
Title: RE: Grammar (was: Re: Linux.com Online Chat)
Dave said:
>
>Wrong. There was a concerted effort by the loony left to destroy
>decent education in favour of whatever trendy piffle that was the
>order of the day.
>I had to unlearn the reading I knew before I went to s
- Original Message -
From: "Matthew Jones" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Oy! That's my family (lefty teachers) you're talking about! I went through
> the state comprehensive system and was never touched by these so-called
> "trendy teaching methods". And my Dad was one of these apparently "loony
Simon Cozens wrpte_
> package four; use subs qw(print); sub print{die@_}; print four things;
> # (Why doesn't that one work properly?)
Answer one: see toke.c (I guess)
Answer two: because print is special. Even without a package, you can't call
a subroutine of yours that you've named print just w
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 12:16:18PM +0100, Matthew Jones wrote:
> Anyway, back to the point. Many of my peers and friends who were taught
> exactly the same punctuation stuff as me just ignored it and used things
> like "could'nt" and "samwich's" and so on. I reckon it's less to do with it
> being
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:00:08AM +0100, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:
>
> I'm as liberal as anyone here as far as creativity, expression,
> society and the rest go, but there are certain fundamentals that you
> need before you can go out and break the rules. Like having the
> musical basics before you
From: Matthew Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: 04 April 2001 12:24
> > I had to unlearn the reading I knew before I went to school in favour
> > of some stupid phonetic system (anyone remember ITA?)
>
> Nope, never heard of it. I learned to read proper english, as did everyone
> else I know who w
>
>
> Wrong. There was a concerted effort by the loony left to destroy
> decent education in favour of whatever trendy piffle that was the
> order of the day.
Oy! That's my family (lefty teachers) you're talking about! I went through
the state comprehensive system and was never touched by thes
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:31:41AM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> Perl is easier to parse simply because all the irregularities are known
> and documented. They're not in English. In addition to the above
^^
Uhm
> I was at school from up to 1995 and grammer, hand writing and
> similar were only lightly touched upon. IT was another subject that we
> never actually did (other than read about spreadsheets leading to my
> adult hatred of Excel) and as far as I'm aware none of my friends of
> the same age di
Matthew Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > True. Shouldn't we also need to include "should'nt" (etc.)
> > here as well? . These are trivially simple rules to teach/learn
> > - so why they aren't taught (or possibly aren't learnt) says something
> > about the education system and the attitude
Dean sent the following bits through the ether:
> Is it just me or do we seem to thread drift a lot recently...
Yes - I've noticed this recently ;-)
ObTopic: Yup, did Perl grammar, and French and German and seven years
of Latin and I think I'm really good at it too and don't talk to me
about Gr
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 11:39:55AM +0100, Matthew Jones wrote:
> I don't know which education system you went through, but I was taught all
> this stuff at primary school. I think it's just because the pupils couln't
> be beggared to learn it properly (as you suggest), preferring to subscribe
> to
> True. Shouldn't we also need to include "should'nt" (etc.)
> here as well? . These are trivially simple rules to teach/learn
> - so why they aren't taught (or possibly aren't learnt) says something
> about the education system and the attitude of the pupils therein.
I don't know which educatio
> From: dcross - David Cross [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>> If you know the difference between it's and its, you're and your,
>> and don't write 'alot', you're probably in the top 1%-ile :)
True. Shouldn't we also need to include "should'nt" (etc.) here as well? .
These are trivially simple rules to
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:32:22AM +0100, dcross - David Cross wrote:
> Dave...
> [who makes lots of typos - but _knows_ they are typos]
There's nothing wrong with typos. It's obvious that they are tyops from
the error. It just means that the person was thinking faster than
typing and forgot th
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:17:24AM -0700, Paul Makepeace wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:04:45AM +0100, Dominic Mitchell wrote:
> > Funnily, enough, no. I was born in 1974, I've never been taught english
> > grammar and I know of nobody who has. It's actually quite annoying as
>
> Me too, (
On 4 Apr 2001, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:
> Dominic Mitchell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > ObPerl: So which is harder to parse? Perl or English?
>
> Time flies like an arrow
> Fruit flies like a banana
>
> Parse that and stay fashionable...
>
They're both Type 0, though one *could* argue th
From: Paul Makepeace <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: 04 April 2001 10:17
> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:04:45AM +0100, Dominic Mitchell wrote:
> > Funnily, enough, no. I was born in 1974, I've never been taught english
> > grammar and I know of nobody who has. It's actually quite annoying as
>
> Me to
Dominic Mitchell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> ObPerl: So which is harder to parse? Perl or English?
Time flies like an arrow
Fruit flies like a banana
Parse that and stay fashionable...
--
Dave Hodgkinson, http://www.hodgkinson.org
Editor-in-chief, The Highway St
On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:04:45AM +0100, Dominic Mitchell wrote:
> Funnily, enough, no. I was born in 1974, I've never been taught english
> grammar and I know of nobody who has. It's actually quite annoying as
Me too, ('74 vintage) but I got learnt grammar. I think mostly by my
mother if trut
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