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That's... An odd reaction to someone making a correction. Really hope you don't act this way in code reviews or any other time you're getting feedback. Typos a
by gk1 9y ago
That's... An odd reaction to someone making a correction. Really hope you don't act this way in code reviews or any other time you're getting feedback.
Typos are know-better errors. The person committing the typo knows the right spelling, they just hit the wrong key. Pointing out the error wouldn't teach anyone anything new.
Malapropisms, on the other hand, are don't-know-better errors; the person committing the error doesn't know what they did wrong. In that case, pointing it out could be educational both for them and other readers.
- scarface74 9y agoI can see the difference and interesting unexpected conversation did come out of it.
- Stratoscope 9y agoAn idiom is not a malapropism. scarface74 did not commit a malapropism, and it was hardly a case where "the person committing the error doesn't know what they did wrong." It was simply the use of a common idiom. The author knew exactly what they were saying, and everyone reading the comment understood its meaning, yourself included. A malapropism is like the Yogi Berra example in Wikipedia: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes." Few people make that particular mistake, and that's what made it funny. Of course, Yogi Berra got a lot of attention for phrases like that. So you have to wonder if he really made a dumb mistake, or if he was being dumb like a fox. But he couldn't be dumb like a fox, could he? No one thinks foxes are dumb, those sly little rascals! And that's what makes "dumb like a fox" a colorful and insightful idiom - just like "I could care less" or "I've been in your shoes." Obviously none of these is to be taken literally, and everyone knows that. Language is much more fun when we allow ourselves to play with it, rather than insist that every word be taken at its most literal meaning.