Ben Coman <b...@openinworld.com> writes: > I'll revisit my previous suggestion. In real life... > > * a "sample" is a real object you can hold. You ask a supplier to > "send you a sample" of their product so you can inspect it before you > buy lots. In an industrial factory, you "take a sample" to take an > item from the process stream to the lab to analyse. Both of these are > real objects you can hold. In addition, Digital Signal Processing > does sampling, it doesn't do exampling. > > * an "example" is one step removed from real life objects. The maths > teacher works through an example. Someone's behaviour can set a good > example. A programming script can provide an example of how to do > something. People say "for example, how about my hypothetical** > situation". None of these refer to a real object. Now you can use > "example" to refer to real objects, but usually second hand when you > are describing a general characteristic. It doesn't have the same > concrete semantic of a real object as "sample".
I like this vocabulary. -- Damien Cassou http://damiencassou.seasidehosting.st "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm." --Winston Churchill
