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Are to talking to me?[^]
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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I hold sarcasm as one of Britain's greatest inventions.
if (Object.DividedByZero == true) { Universe.Implode(); }
Meus ratio ex fortis machina. Simplicitatis de formae ac munus. -Foothill, 2016
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English was not a language, its a mix of German, French, Spanish, Italin, Latin, Flemish...it was not designed it happended...
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Quote: split in·fin·i·tive
noun
a construction consisting of an infinitive with an adverb or other word inserted between to and the verb, e.g., she seems to really like it.
Basically, an infinitive is the "whole word" or the basic form of the word, so "to run", "to sing", "to bleat", "to see" --- the "to" is part of the word. Consequently, putting a word between "to" and "run" such as "to not run" splits the infinitive and confuses the meaning.
In each of your "only", the meaning is clear; "Only" applies to the word immediately following. Unless it doesn't as when there's a comma, in which case it applies to the preceding word.
God only knows.
God, only, knows.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote: the "to" is part of the word
Is not.
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is to!
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Surely "I am not going to punch his elephanting lights out" is more correct. 
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Bingo!
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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I am so not going to not answer this question...
The answer is B.
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What do you make of a "near miss"? 
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If there is one thing the English can be given credit for it is English and I'm sure they would say (b). The other is usage found elsewhere in the world. (a) invents a new verb - the verb to "not hit". This fits with the verb "not fly" for example. I am busily "not flying" right now.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
modified 4-Aug-17 19:42pm.
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pwasser wrote: verb "not fly" for example
No such thing. You are standing or sitting or walking or laying or some other ground-based thing, not "not flying". 
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote: Where did these people learn grammar?
They didn't. Schools stopped teaching grammar, along with spelling, years ago when the education establishment decided it was good to not force children to learn rules.
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I understand what you're saying...
But, the two sentences, to me, have very different meanings.
a) I'm going to not hit him - implication, there will be no hitting, but kicking is a potential; regardless, he needs a smack down. If my mother told me to not hit my brother, I could use this sentence, kick my brother, and then my mother would say, "You knew what I meant!" and I would get hit
b) I'm not going to hit him - implication, no physical violence will occur
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Tim Carmichael wrote: b) I'm not going to hit him - implication, no physical violence will occur
same applies
b) I'm not going to hit him ... but that also doesn't mean I wont bite him
a) is as OP said it's considered 'bad grammar,' but only in English. As others also pointed out different languages (German, Dutch) do change the order. Given all these (and others) are Germanic rooted languages it's odd what's OK in one is considered bad in another. But bad does not mean wrong, perhaps 'ambiguous,' 'incomplete' or 'unnatural/uncommon' or even 'outdated'
I'm going to hit him not. .... I'm going to hit not him.
!hit(him)
hit(!him)
^hit(him)
// and perhaps a few others
Sin tack
the any key okay
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Exactly my reaction, too - but case A could also be a complete rejection of some proposal from others: I am doing the opposite, I am going to defend him! The main thing is that "to not do it" is a very explicit rejection, not just refrain from doing something.
Another example: Religious people sometimes claim that rejecting the idea of a divine creator is just as much a religion as believing in a deity. A proper response to that is "Yes, and my favorite hobby is to not collect staps".
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I'm going through expenses, and for anyone living in Canada who doesn't have that weird Canada / US hardware translation unit built into their brain, it's painful.
It's the dates. The US, alone, uses mm/dd/yy. The rest of the world except for Belize uses something vaguely sensible. Even Canada. Except Canada has a ton of systems imported directly from the US (or shares systems with their US parent companies) so lots of dates on things like receipts are in the form mm/dd/yy. Or they are dd/mm/yy. You can't tell. 06/07/17. Guess the date.
Canadians can tell, just by looking at the date whether it's June or July. To me that's impossible yet they seem to do it.
Somewhere a programmer decided to output the date this way. Either they just used the default date formatter or they deliberately choose a dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy format. 5 seconds of work would enable them to output in dd-MMM-yyyy or dd-MMM-yy or even yyyy-mm-dd or yy-mm-dd format. Either of which would allow a high level of accuracy in guessing the date. I'm sure they also thought, at the time, that their decision was a valid one.
It wasn't, and it made me wonder whether we as developers have a responsibility to ensure that the information we present to the world is always presented unambiguously. Is this something you do? Is it something your lead actually stops you doing? Or is it something you've not really though of?
cheers
Chris Maunder
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At school they called it "information science". We work with information, are responsible for it's correctness and validity when storing, as well as giving the correct output.
We are, essentially, replacing paper-and-people-equivalent processes, in any form, that result in the same output. No-one outside the developer has any influence on how that is done, so ultimately, you're the one responsible - mayhaps not in a legal way, but that is an entirely different thing.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Chris Maunder wrote: we as developers have a responsibility to ensure that the information we present to the world is always presented unambiguously
Yes.
Chris Maunder wrote: Is this something you do?
Yes.
Chris Maunder wrote: Is it something your lead actually stops you doing?
No, and if he did I'd bite his head clean off.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Some developers are rebellious, and the guy (or girl, or gender neutral being) who thought up the US date format was probably just doing it to irritate us europeans !
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RickZeeland wrote: probably just doing it to irritate us europeans !
In that case, I shall restore my support for the mm/dd/yyyy format!
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Why Do Americans Write Dates: Month-Day-Year? - YouTube[^]
TLDW: No one knows but we've been doing it since colonizing NA. Personally I only usually care about the month and current day of the week. The specific day and year are largely irrelevant day-to-day. Maybe that's why? Just a guess.
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If that's the case when/why did the UK switch to day/month/year?
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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It's almost certainly a matter of month/day being most often used, year being added on optionally.
Consider the MM/DD portion of the date to be day-of-year. It's big-endian, which isn't bad in itself. Appending the year afterwards vs beforehand is normal in speech, but when you write it, it appears that you're now using little-endian: day-of-year/year. It's awkward, but not crazy.
If you think that crazy because mixing little-endian with big-endian is crazy, consider that DD/MM/YYYY is already mixing little- with big-, since the actual digits we write are big-endian.
(I prefer YYYY-MM-DD, myself, which is all big-endian and fully consistent, but the American way isn't illogical, per se.)
Jesse
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