From: "Michal Suchánek" <msuchanek@suse.de>
To: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Cc: Varun Varada <varuncvarada@gmail.com>, git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] doc: replace jargon word "impact" with "effect"/"affect"
Date: Wed, 12 May 2021 12:08:55 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20210512100855.GA8544@kitsune.suse.cz> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <609b9ab0b1120_6e4e9208cc@natae.notmuch>
On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 04:06:56AM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> Michal Suchánek wrote:
> > On Wed, May 12, 2021 at 12:13:08AM -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> > > Michal Suchánek wrote:
>
> > > > You can use 'affect' or 'impact' and it generally conveys the same
> > > > meaning.
> > >
> > > That's clearly *your* opinion, but that's not my opinon.
> > >
> > > I'm not arguing between blue and red; I'm arguing between water-based and
> > > lead-based paint.
> >
> > No, you are not. There is no clear problem with 'impact', either.
>
> There's no clear problem *to you*.
>
> > So if somebody comes along later and says that they find 'affect'
> > confusing and impact should be used does that need to be accepted as
> > well, back and forth ad nauseam?
>
> No. When that happens we start a new discussion, and see where that
> leads.
>
> > > The difference may not matter to you, but it matters to me.
> > >
> > > If it's bikeshedding to you, and it "gnerally conveys the same meaning",
> > > why are you arguing against?
> >
> > So if 'for' loops and 'while' loops generally convey the same meaning
> > should we accept patches that replace some 'for' loops with 'while'
> > lopps or vice versa?
>
> You are not answering my question, and you are providing an irrelevant
> example.
>
> I don't see any general difference between 'for' loops and 'while'
> loops. But I do see a difference between 'impact' and 'affect'.
>
> You are starting from the premise that $a is no different than $b.
> That's your opinion, and I'm not disregarding it. But other people (e.g.
> Varun and me) do have a different opinion.
>
> Again, to make it crystal clear; you opine that $a and $b are equal, we
> opine that they are not. We don't disregard your opinion, you do
> disregard ours.
>
> I don't know how much clearer I can make this.
>
> > In the COCA corpus there is around 200k instances of 'effect', around
> > 100k instances of 'affect', and around 100k instances of 'impact'
> > which makes effect/affect about 3 times more frequent than 'impact'.
> > That's not even an order of magnitude - clearly not enough to claim it
> > obscure.
>
> I don't think you understand the point.
>
> The word "impact" is not obscure by any means.
>
> The Chicxulub impactor (probably an asteroid) did create an impact on
> Earth that probably killed all the non-avian dinosaurs. In that context
> the word "impact" is 100% valid.
>
> And you can find many such valid instances in those 100k COCA corpus
> instances...
>
> But not all.
>
>
> The way the word "impact" is used in the git documentation is different
> than the COCA corpus. Not all the instances of the word "impact" in the
> git documentation refer to an event so drastic that it destroyed
> thousands of species.
>
> The point is very simple; there's valid ways of using the word "impact",
> and there's invalid ways of using it. The git documentation for the most
> part uses the word "impact" in an invalid way.
>
> How many times the COCA corpuses uses "impact" in $b manner is
> irrelevant to the number of times the git documentation uses the same
> word in $a manner; the same word can have completely (and sometimes
> opposite meanings).
>
> The word "literally" sometimes means the exact opposite of the word
> "literally". So if you find 1 million instances of the word "instance"
> used in some way, that doesn't matter, because you might be using it in
> a different way.
>
>
> So... Can you answer my question?
>
> Do you have anything against the word "affect" in *any* instance?
Yss, the Merriam-Webster dictionary also lists the meaning
"to cause illness, symptoms, etc." I don't think something that drastic
should be included in the git documentation.
SCNR
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-05-12 10:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 68+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-04-05 21:48 [PATCH] doc: replace jargon word "impact" with "effect"/"affect" Varun Varada
2021-04-06 9:24 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-04-06 19:36 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-06 23:01 ` Jeff King
2021-04-07 0:06 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-28 0:39 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-28 8:58 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-04-28 18:15 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-28 18:49 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-04-30 1:51 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-30 7:59 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-10 17:19 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-10 17:35 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-10 18:37 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-11 10:43 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-11 13:22 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-05-12 3:02 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:48 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:38 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:34 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:24 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 19:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 20:25 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-11 21:38 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-12 3:43 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 4:09 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 5:13 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 6:47 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 9:06 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 10:08 ` Michal Suchánek [this message]
2021-05-12 10:33 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 11:05 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 11:20 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 11:45 ` Robert P. J. Day
2021-05-12 15:19 ` Kerry, Richard
2021-05-12 16:47 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-12 17:01 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 17:32 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 18:04 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 19:42 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-13 7:46 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-13 8:28 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-13 8:55 ` Robert Coup
2021-05-13 9:48 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-13 9:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-26 23:49 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-27 11:46 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-27 14:08 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-27 14:35 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-27 16:43 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-12 23:13 ` Varun Varada
2021-06-13 11:40 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-06-13 14:06 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-13 16:28 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-06-13 17:12 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 22:52 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-13 6:19 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 3:21 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 19:21 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 19:57 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 3:09 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 4:11 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 5:22 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 16:39 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-13 10:40 ` Philip Oakley
2021-05-26 23:52 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-27 11:20 ` Philip Oakley
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