Should probably move this to [chat]... On Wed, Nov 23, 2005 at 10:42:54PM +1100, Del wrote: > Steve Lindsay wrote: > >Python works for me because: > > > >a) i (and others) write less code because the language is very > >expressive. therefore less bugs > > Grarrrr. Grammar fascist attack coming up: > > "Less" is a measure of quality not quantity. So by saying there are > "less bugs" what you are implying is that there are the same number of > bugs, but the bugs are smaller. What you probably want to say is > "fewer bugs". Agreed but... Here perhaps is where language differs from code. If enough people over a long enough period of time use "less" as a measure of quantity (as in something measurable in discrete units), it will indeed become a measure of such. Dictionaries, and therefore definitions, are constructed through analysis of usage. That would throw a spanner in the works for compiler writers wouldn't it?
Denis -- Dr Denis Crowdy Department of Contemporary Music Studies Macquarie University NSW 2109, Australia +61 2 9850 6787; http://www.dcms.mq.edu.au -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
