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English is certainly not free of ambiguity, but in the past i've seen you heavily emphasize precision in word choice, so it's surprising to see you de-emphasize
by gw 7y ago
English is certainly not free of ambiguity, but in the past i've seen you heavily emphasize precision in word choice, so it's surprising to see you de-emphasize it here. Nobody is a final arbiter of definitions, but the distinction i'm making is not a trivial one, and Hickey isn't the only one to have made it. Even thinking about it colloquially, how often do you follow the word "complex" with an infinitive verb describing an action? A rube goldberg machine is complex...and hard to build!
- pron 7y agoI'm not deemphasizing it, I'm just saying that we're talking about different meanings of "complexity" here and there is no well-accepted definition. My "complexity" refers to the effort required by the programmer when understanding programs written in the language.
- gw 7y agoFair enough, ron. I won't belabor it further. I'll just leave this: Long ago, after coming across a very useful distinction between the words "practical" and "pragmatic," i intentionally changed my usage of those words as a result. Not because a charismatic person told me to, but because it was useful. If a distinction is useful to make, start making it, my man!