Re: Writing English.

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On Nov 22, 2013, at 2:29 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 11/23/13 10:17, inode0 wrote:
>> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> Just read some stuff on this list about "spins", a concept which had
>>> not previously impinged itself upon my consciousness.  So I went and
>>> had a look at the spins.fedoraproject.org page. It started off by saying
>>> "What is a spin? Fedora spins are alternate version of Fedora, tailored
>>> ...".
>>> 
>>> For God's sake, people!!!  That's "alternative versions"!!! Alternate
>>> means "every other" or "every second".  Alternative means "available as
>>> another possibility".  Saying "alternate" when you mean "alternative" is
>>> sloppy, lazy thinking and irritates and confuses the reader.
>>> 
>>> Why can't computer geeks learn to write English correctly?
>> In American usage this is acceptable and common.
>    But wrong nevertheless.  It conflates two quite distinct ideas, blurs
>    the meaning and diminishes the language.

Nope, you're wrong. Find a copy of New Oxford American Dictionary and look up the words and usage. I seriously doubt even Oxford English makes such a big distinction between two words that share the same etymology and have no good reason for meaning different things.


Chris Murphy
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