From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
To: "Michal Suchánek" <msuchanek@suse.de>,
"Varun Varada" <varuncvarada@gmail.com>
Cc: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>, git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] doc: replace jargon word "impact" with "effect"/"affect"
Date: Tue, 11 May 2021 21:59:49 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <609b44a559ade_678ff2088@natae.notmuch> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20210511104326.GJ12700@kitsune.suse.cz>
Michal Suchánek wrote:
> Also there is no single authority on the English language. The language
> is spoken in multiple distinct countries, and even within one country
> there is some variation. It also evolves over time.
And this is precisely the reason why you target the least common
denominator.
Do you have **any** instance in which the sentence with "affect" reads
worse than with "impact"?
> Since you can look up the meaning of the word in a general purpose
> dictionary it should be an acceptable use even if it's less commonly
> used in some other English-speaking parts of the world.
If you are writing classic prose, and most of your audience needs to use
the dictionary to understand what you meant, you have failed.
> > > If you do wholesale word replacement in the project for no good reason
> > > it only makes working with the project history harder.
> >
> > I'm not sure I understand the sentiment here. As in, the Git history
> > will be polluted? Because the "git blame" command will only show
> > changes for the lines where I changed the single words.
>
> Yes, it will be polluted. And since we have an opinion of another native
> English speaker that the use of 'impact' as synonym for affect/effect is
> fine this is clearly a matter of opinion.
It's not just native English speakers that read the English
documentation.
> This topic somewhat interests me so I was continuing this discussion
> in the hope that you either provide a specific very confusing use of the
> word impact in the documentation that triggered creating this patch or
> some solid evidence that the general use of word 'impact' as synonym for
> affect/effect is in some way problematic but niether happened.
This is not how improvements work.
We have two options: $a, and $b. You argue that $a doesn't really
provide any advantages over $b (although it has been clearly demonstrated
that it does). But you are not providing any advantage of $b over $a
either.
Let's turn the tables around; do **you** have any evidence that "impact"
is superior to "affect" in **any** instance?
--
Felipe Contreras
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-05-12 2:59 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 [this message]
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
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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