“I just chose words carefully”

Post by latexr » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 11:46 AM UTC

unicorn_platfor wrote: post #175

I like the idea that arbitrary constraints can actually improve writing. Without a constraint, it's easy to fall back on familiar phrasing, while having to work around something unusual forces you to reconsider each word. I wonder if this applies to programming and other creative work too.

Post by lproven » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 11:53 AM UTC

SyneRyder wrote: post #153

cyphar wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And are British, at least in Australia (and the US, I guess?) we pronounce the second "i". It is always fun when you notice where someone is from based on secondary clues like that -- my favourite is the choice of "a" or "an" where it is ambiguous (for instance, I recently ran across "an HTTP request" where I would've said "a HTTP request").

The term for this is a "shibboleth", if it's of interest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth

  A shibboleth is a little more specific: it's the pronunciation of one
  specific sound in a different way that marks out a person as from one
  specific group. 

  So, some of the go-tos... New Zealand English tends to turn an /i/ in
  even stressed positions into schwa (the sound on the end of "little",
  or "umbrella", or "gopher", and one of the key sounds to master for a
  non-native learner who wants to improve their English accent). When a
  Kiwi says "fish and chips" it sounds like "fush and chups", "swimming
  pool" becomes "swumming pool", and this is _the_ way to distinguish a
  Kiwi from an Australian, because to the rest of the Anglophone world,
  NZ English sounds very like Aus English.

  Canadians tend to pronounce the "ow" sound in words like "about" in a
  way that to my British ear sounds Scottish: it becomes "aboot". So if
  I hear someone speaking with an American sounding accent but they say
  "I found oot aboot something," I ask them if they're Canadian. I tend
  to find most Canadians and New Zealanders are delighted if someone is
  able to tell, so ask very early on and you can make new friends. :-)

Post by stkdump » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 11:59 AM UTC

_jackdk_ wrote: post #16

I wonder if at any point during writing, the heroic author of that Super Metroid guide learned that "missiles" are not spent "missles", and decided to own the mistake rather than reword the entire guide. Also, the font used for the monospace examples in the post is a great kick to the nostalgia. Which one is it? It reminds me of https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/font?ibm_vga_...

Post by thavalai » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 12:03 PM UTC

jagged-chisel wrote: post #242

lproven wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh. It worked. Maybe I should start writing all my HN responses like this. :-) In the early '90s I occasionally wrote circular messages, and once, I recall spending a good chunk of an hour composing one in the shape of a Christmas-tree: stacked triangles, gradually getting wider from the top to the bottom of the "tree". One letter wide at the very tip, and then 2 at the top of the next triangle. The bottom of each t…

No, please. It doesn’t wrap correctly on narrow mobile screens.

Post by abcd_f » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 12:11 PM UTC

internet_points wrote: post #181

AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #109

In programming certain word choices are valuable in this way. It's sad that pairs like true/false, good/bad, first/rest, and left/right are unequal length. But there are nice pairs like old/new, head/tail, fast/slow, same/diff, and right/wrong, which can help with create natural vertical alignment throughout a function.

> old/new, head/tail, fast/slow, same/diff, and right/wrong also some abbreviations work fine: min max row col beg (vs start) end key val src dst pos len and we have public_key secret_key (vs private) from till push pull load save init done inner outer ----- and if you speak Norwegian you have two options: ja yes no nei but that may trigger a different kind of OCD :-)

  get
  put