On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 08:18:11AM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> Actually, this is a generic transformation. Given an English verb,
> you almost always add "ing" to create a noun. Since "round-robin" is
> used as a verb,
... which sounds, in this case, weird IMHO. :-)
> as in "The scheduler will round-robin between the two SCHED_RR
> tasks",
I think the "correct" way to say it is "The scheduler will select tasks
in a round-robin fashion..." But while it is correct (for some accepted
definition of correct), this is slow, has too many words and we don't
want that - we want fast! We want a lot less instructions in the pipe!
This way, we burn a lot less energy when talking. :-)
> "round-robining" may be used as a noun denoting the action
> corresponding to the verb "round-robin". There is no doubt an
> argument as to whether this should be spelled "round-robining" or
> "round-robinning", but I will leave this to those who care enough to
> argue about it. ;-)
Hey sir, you're preaching to the choir - I'm all for doing all kinds of
weird/funny experiments with language...
> The thing about English is that it is an open-source language, and
> always has been. English is defined by its usage, and the wise
> dictionary-makers try their best to keep up.
... yes, and then there are the English language Nazis who wouldn't
allow that - their rules are stricter than software APIs and breaking
userspace compatibility.
Technical people, OTOH, are much more willing and not afraid to take the
language and mold it in such a form so that it works for them instead of
adhering to ancient rules. Which is cool. That's why I was pointing out
the "round-robining" - nice and cool. And look how much shorter it is:
round-robining = iterate over the items on a list by periodically
switching from one to the next in a circular order.
Now imagine the pressure on I$ the two versions create. And compare. :-)
> (The unwise ones attempt to stop the evolution of the English
> language.) Everything good and everything bad about English stems from
> this property. ;-)
Yeah, I've had to deal with enough of those evolution-stopping idiots
during my days at the university. Well, I've got three words for them:
"Resistance is futile!"
:-)
--
Regards/Gruss,
Boris.
Sent from a fat crate under my desk. Formatting is fine.
--
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majord...@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
