"[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > How is it wrong? "@" is used as an abbreviation for "at" all the time.
>
> My english dictionary, although a bit old maybe, doesn't list it at least,
Does your dictionary define other punctuation marks?
> but then again I'm no linguistic when it comes to the english language so
> of course I shouldn't say for sure that it isn't "correct english". The
> first time I saw "@" being used as an abbreviation for "at" was back in
> ~1995 where some english underground magazine-add were selling movies "@
> �9.95" - and I thought to myself, ''well that sure sounds like a serious
> company indeed''. Times do change I guess,
Uh, no, it didn't spring up in 1995 -- it's been used in that sense for
hundreds of years:
http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/whereat.htm
> - soon '4' will be accepted as
> 'for' and 'U' will be.., ah U know where I'm getting @ ;-).
There're only so many columns in a tty. Abbreviation is justified and
desirable in some places.
> Anyway, if
> I'm wrong, I am however pretty sure that "@" isn't used much as an
> abbreviation for "at" outside english-speaking countries, if any. (And i
> guess it can be hard to translate "@" (at) into something native when you
> only have 1byte of space ;-) ) - then again it's all up to you of course,
> I'm just rambling now I feel.
That usage of "@" has been established worldwide by the syntax of email
addresses and other protocols using the <user><at><host> syntax.
> > Easy for all those unlabeled numbers to confuse non-experts.
>
> ... you have a point there of course. *sigh* I admit you have a strong
> point there even. But dang, I (and I guess most people [except the really
> confused novice ;-) ]) would hate to see such a good feature as knowing
> how much time is left until the download is complete be left out just
> because of it...
I know creeping featuritis makes some people antsy, but we could stick with
a simple, no-frills, easily-understandable output format by default but have
an option to use a more terse, cluttered one containing more information.
Presumably anyone using the option will have read the documentation and will
know what the different columns mean.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Harkless | To help prevent SPAM contamination,
GNU Wget co-maintainer | please do not mention this email
http://sunsite.dk/wget/ | address in Usenet posts -- thank you.
