3 ms·

The most important example of that class of error is REFERER. It should have been spelled REFERRER. But nobody caught it, and you really can't change somethin

by btilly 5y ago

The most important example of that class of error is REFERER. It should have been spelled REFERRER. But nobody caught it, and you really can't change something that is part of the HTTP standard...

mixmastamyk 5y ago
Early header compression.
- saagarjha 5y ago
  Took a leaf out of the UNIX creat/umount handbook, clearly.
  - int_19h 5y ago
    umount() is actually legit - early C limited extern identifiers to 6 chars (or rather it would allow more than that, but the rest would be silently ignored for linking purposes), hence why we also have strlen() etc. creat() is weird because create() would fit that constraint just fine, so there's no obvious reason as to why it had to be shortened. The 1978 K&R C book actually notes it with [sic].
    - mike_hock 5y ago
      When you're dumping loads of short, generic, common words into the global namespace (well ... the only namespace in C), it's nice to have them misspelled so user code is still free to use the real word.
      - guerrilla 5y ago
        > well ... the only namespace in C Technically there are several namespaces since you can, for example, name a struct the name as its type.
        dhosek 5y ago
        After many years in Javaworld, seeing this sort of thing in C++ really freaked me out.
Razengan 5y ago
At this point I think it may be question whether the problem lies with English itself. Such an error prone language.
- dhosek 5y ago
  You don't know the half of it. Many contemporary and common words are the results of misspellings. “a nickname” was originally “an ekename” (eke being an old English word meaning also) conversely, “an apron” was originally “a napron.” English is a weird agglomeration of different languages, with things like the application of French-style plurals (-s) to Anglo-Saxon words (but not always, cf. ox -> oxen) and a generally Germanic syntax with a large fraction of Romance root words. As part of my Dewey Decimal Project¹ https://www.dahosek.com/category/dewey-decimal-project/ https://www.dahosek.com/category/dewey-decimal-project/ I ended up reading some interesting books on English linguistics (scroll down to the 500s for those). ——— 1. I’m not quite done. I have two read books to blog about before I read the last book in the series which will be the book my local library has at its highest Dewey Decimal call number. Alas, it's not a 999 Extraterrestial Worlds book, but I think it's either Antarctica or Australia (I looked when I first started on this seven years ago, but I've since forgotten).
  - diggernet 5y ago
    Also, "a narang" -> "an orange".
  - sls 5y ago
    It's not really misspellings, it's reanalysis, and it's not at all particular to English.
chrisweekly 5y ago
Tangent: this reminds me of the _aptly_ named "mod_speling" module.
ant6n 5y ago
> The most important example of that class of error is REFERER. It should have been spelled REFERRER. I thought it was supposed to be REEFERER.

by btilly 5y ago

The most important example of that class of error is REFERER. It should have been spelled REFERRER. But nobody caught it, and you really can't change something that is part of the HTTP standard...

mixmastamyk 5y ago

Early header compression.

saagarjha 5y ago
Took a leaf out of the UNIX creat/umount handbook, clearly.
- int_19h 5y ago
  umount() is actually legit - early C limited extern identifiers to 6 chars (or rather it would allow more than that, but the rest would be silently ignored for linking purposes), hence why we also have strlen() etc. creat() is weird because create() would fit that constraint just fine, so there's no obvious reason as to why it had to be shortened. The 1978 K&R C book actually notes it with [sic].
  - mike_hock 5y ago
    When you're dumping loads of short, generic, common words into the global namespace (well ... the only namespace in C), it's nice to have them misspelled so user code is still free to use the real word.
    - guerrilla 5y ago
      > well ... the only namespace in C Technically there are several namespaces since you can, for example, name a struct the name as its type.
      - dhosek 5y ago
        After many years in Javaworld, seeing this sort of thing in C++ really freaked me out.

Razengan 5y ago

At this point I think it may be question whether the problem lies with English itself. Such an error prone language.

dhosek 5y ago
You don't know the half of it. Many contemporary and common words are the results of misspellings. “a nickname” was originally “an ekename” (eke being an old English word meaning also) conversely, “an apron” was originally “a napron.” English is a weird agglomeration of different languages, with things like the application of French-style plurals (-s) to Anglo-Saxon words (but not always, cf. ox -> oxen) and a generally Germanic syntax with a large fraction of Romance root words. As part of my Dewey Decimal Project¹ https://www.dahosek.com/category/dewey-decimal-project/ https://www.dahosek.com/category/dewey-decimal-project/ I ended up reading some interesting books on English linguistics (scroll down to the 500s for those). ——— 1. I’m not quite done. I have two read books to blog about before I read the last book in the series which will be the book my local library has at its highest Dewey Decimal call number. Alas, it's not a 999 Extraterrestial Worlds book, but I think it's either Antarctica or Australia (I looked when I first started on this seven years ago, but I've since forgotten).
- diggernet 5y ago
  Also, "a narang" -> "an orange".
- sls 5y ago
  It's not really misspellings, it's reanalysis, and it's not at all particular to English.

chrisweekly 5y ago

Tangent: this reminds me of the _aptly_ named "mod_speling" module.

ant6n 5y ago

> The most important example of that class of error is REFERER. It should have been spelled REFERRER. I thought it was supposed to be REEFERER.