On 22/05/2019 13:17, Bill Schmidt wrote: > On 5/22/19 5:19 AM, Richard Earnshaw (lists) wrote: >> On 21/05/2019 21:18, Bill Schmidt wrote: >>> On 5/21/19 11:47 AM, Martin Sebor wrote: >>>> The GCC coding style says to use "floating-point" as an adjective >>>> rather than "floating point." After enhancing the -Wformat-diag >>>> checker to detect this I found a bunch of uses of the latter, such >>>> as in: >>>> >>>> gcc/c/c-decl.c:10944 >>>> gcc/c/c-parser.c:9423, 9446, 9450, etc. >>>> gcc/convert.c:418, 422 >>>> gcc/cp/call.c:5070 >>>> gcc/cp/cvt.c:886 >>>> >>>> Before I fix them all and adjust the tests, I want to make sure >>>> we really want to follow this rule. The C standard uses both >>>> interchangeably. With just one exception, the C++ standard uses >>>> the hyphenated form. >>> The hyphenated form is correct English, so I certainly prefer it. :-) >>> >> It's not quite as simple as that. Hyphens should be used to make it >> clear what is the adjective and what is the noun: >> >> A floating-point number (hyphenated) is a number with a >> floating point (no hyphen). >> >> In the first case 'floating-point' is the adjective and qualifies >> number. In the second case 'floating' is the adjective and qualifies >> 'point'. >> >> But this is English, so there are probably some exceptions even then - >> but not in this case, I think. :-) > > English is always fun, agreed -- Martin cited the requirement to use > "floating-point" when it's used as an adjective, which is certainly correct. > > There's a more interesting question around cavalier usage such as, > "We should use floating point." I would argue that there is an implied > noun "arithmetic" modified here, so this should also be hyphenated, > but I daresay there would be people on both sides of this one...
I would argue that leaving out "arithmetic" is the error. :-) > > This is why grammar police usually die from friendly fire. :-) > Sticking your head above the parapet is always fraught with danger :) R.
