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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

  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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