Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:00:15 +0100 | From | Borislav Petkov <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] nohz1: Documentation |
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On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 08:18:11AM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote: > Actually, this is a generic transformation. Given an English verb, > you almost always add "ing" to create a noun. Since "round-robin" is > used as a verb,
... which sounds, in this case, weird IMHO. :-)
> as in "The scheduler will round-robin between the two SCHED_RR > tasks",
I think the "correct" way to say it is "The scheduler will select tasks in a round-robin fashion..." But while it is correct (for some accepted definition of correct), this is slow, has too many words and we don't want that - we want fast! We want a lot less instructions in the pipe! This way, we burn a lot less energy when talking. :-)
> "round-robining" may be used as a noun denoting the action > corresponding to the verb "round-robin". There is no doubt an > argument as to whether this should be spelled "round-robining" or > "round-robinning", but I will leave this to those who care enough to > argue about it. ;-)
Hey sir, you're preaching to the choir - I'm all for doing all kinds of weird/funny experiments with language...
> The thing about English is that it is an open-source language, and > always has been. English is defined by its usage, and the wise > dictionary-makers try their best to keep up.
... yes, and then there are the English language Nazis who wouldn't allow that - their rules are stricter than software APIs and breaking userspace compatibility.
Technical people, OTOH, are much more willing and not afraid to take the language and mold it in such a form so that it works for them instead of adhering to ancient rules. Which is cool. That's why I was pointing out the "round-robining" - nice and cool. And look how much shorter it is:
round-robining = iterate over the items on a list by periodically switching from one to the next in a circular order.
Now imagine the pressure on I$ the two versions create. And compare. :-)
> (The unwise ones attempt to stop the evolution of the English > language.) Everything good and everything bad about English stems from > this property. ;-)
Yeah, I've had to deal with enough of those evolution-stopping idiots during my days at the university. Well, I've got three words for them: "Resistance is futile!"
:-)
-- Regards/Gruss, Boris.
Sent from a fat crate under my desk. Formatting is fine. --
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