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“I just chose words carefully”

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Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#301

Post by bigfishrunning »

lproven wrote: post #240
amiga386 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specifically, upper-class Brits pronounce the "h". See this classic Monty Python sketch which makes fun of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnq96W9jtuw&t=66s Praline: 'Ello. I would like to buy a fish license, please. Clerk: A what? Praline: A license for my pet fish, Eric. Clerk: How did you know my name was Eric? Praline: No, no, no, no. My _fish's_ name is Eric. Eric the fish. 'E's an 'alibut. Clerk: What? Pral…

> Specifically, upper-class Brits pronounce the "h". I think you have this slightly muddled. It's not that upper-class Brits pronounce more of the "h" sounds. The idea is that upper-class types go to private schools and they learn French, and so they know that lots of English words that have a leading "h" are French loanwords and thus the they are unaspirated in the original, i.e. the "h" is silent – it ought not to…

> (Wondering how long I should keep this up...)

Forever, I'm finding it very entertaining

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#302

Post by samudrijan »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #185
wombatpm wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Widows are when the final line of a paragraph starts the next page. Orphans are when the first line of a paragraph ends a page.

You will have to explain what a page is to the younger readers.

It’s like when you click on a new link. That’s a page.

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#303

Post by [deleted] »

Kootle wrote: post #148
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.

In Japan they have the abbreviation “NG” (“not good”) that’s often used as the opposite of “OK”. I always liked how, when I worked for a Japanese machine learning company, classifiers would be between “OK” and “NG”. Maybe semantically “okay” and “not good” are not great opposites, but I always liked how having textual alignment makes the contrast immediately obvious

[deleted]

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#304

Post by bigfishrunning »

lproven wrote: post #246
saghm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that "le" is not really phonetic to how people pronounce words ending in that; "missils" would be more phonetic

> "missils" would be more phonetic Only for Americans. In British English, it's "MISS isle", and "MISSul" is a church book. I'm not Christian and I am not sure of exactly what's in a _missal_ but it's prayers or something. I do not know if American English even has missals. They're old fashioned things these days, I think. But in my dialect, "missile" and "missal" are two different words with 2 different sounds, whic…

A missal generally has bible passages organized by mass date (instead of in the usual order), as well as some hymns and a reference to the order of mass (the things that happen when you go to church)

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#305

Post by howToTestFE »

Pretty sure Laravel source code comments above functions were always something like 3 lines, with each line slightly less length than the previous one. Not sure if this is still done or enforced at all, but it was always neat to see.

Here is an example - https://github.com/illuminate/database/blob/master/Connectio... - looks like each one is 3 characters shorter.

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#306

Post by kccqzy »

Xirdus wrote: post #279
thavalai wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to wrap correctly in landscape mode.

Newspapers figured out wide text lines are awful for reading some 100 years ago. We're still waiting for web designers to catch up...

Old newspapers have overly narrow columns that make both full justification and hyphenation ugly. I don’t think we should be looking at 100-year old newspapers for inspiration. Maybe look at them and see how far we’ve come and how much improvement we have in modern printed matter.

Instead we should look at modern books. Without paying good money to use tools like InDesign, just use LaTeX with microtype together with the default margins. You will get the ideal width for text lines (about 60 to 80 characters), full justification with minimal hyphenation.

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#307

Post by KerryJones »

howToTestFE wrote: post #305

Pretty sure Laravel source code comments above functions were always something like 3 lines, with each line slightly less length than the previous one. Not sure if this is still done or enforced at all, but it was always neat to see. Here is an example - https://github.com/illuminate/database/blob/master/Connectio... - looks like each one is 3 characters shorter.

I think about this all the time. The first several years of Laravel had just absolutely beautiful code to see (both from an engineering, OCD and aesthetic perspective)

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#309

Post by thinkafter »

defrost wrote: post #126
bluefirebrand wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does the writing quality, genius or otherwise, have to do with the boom mic though?

Bugger all - particularly given the boom mic operator and other framing "gaffs" are (as I recall) all part of the "wide screen" 16:9 later release on BluRay etc that were somewhat rushed out the door. A number of shows of that era were filmed wide (16:9) and post processed / coloured / reframed and broadcast on TV in a box 4:3 aspect ratio No visible boom mic operators, etc - careful eyes in the initial post producti…

[dead]

Re: “I just chose words carefully”

#310

Post by card_zero »

boomlinde wrote: post #296
card_zero wrote: post #38

This might potentially rejuvenate the writing by disrupting habitual patterns, which forces more original choices.

Deliberate distractions from the functional end goal benefit other arts just as well, promoting lateral thinking. Brian Eno made a card deck of "oblique strategies" to help you out of blocks. https://enoshop.co.uk/products/oblique-strategies

  Imagine a messageboard that
  required this writing style
  in order to make any posts!
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