git@vger.kernel.org mailing list mirror (one of many)
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
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

  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

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

  List information: http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20210512100855.GA8544@kitsune.suse.cz \
    --to=msuchanek@suse.de \
    --cc=felipe.contreras@gmail.com \
    --cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=varuncvarada@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://80x24.org/mirrors/git.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).