A rant on business communications...
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Hi,
this is a rant. I have one major pet peeve when reading these forums, and that's the use of "Then" and Than". For instance
The sentence; "the process deletes data older then 1 month each week." leaves me wondering how you get a month into a week. What does the process do one month each week. "Then" implies a sequence of events. First this then that. If the sentence read; "The process deletes data older than 1 month each week" It's still not great english but at least I'm not waiting to find out what the process does one month each week. I'm not saying that perfect english is required because there are enough people out there that do not have english as a first language and that does complicate things a bit. If I can get only this one point across I'll be much happier. So remember:
first this then that
rather this than that.
THAN implies substitution or choice, THEN implies a sequence. Face it is our business to communicate, either through the use of databases or language it doesn't matter but this one little thing can make all of our lives easier. Well at least my life easier anyway.
Thanks for reading.
Scott
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Other then that, how'd you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?
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We'll assume it was done on purpuse (for now)... than we'll see.
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Why wood you think that?
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ACK! I'd take a thousand incorrect uses of than/then over a single "gee, can somebody show me how to solve this problem using a cursor?" or answers that make use of cursors.
If you feel you need to use a cursor, please, go get a job using Oracle or some other DB engine. Otherwise grow up and embrace relational theory...
--- There! now that's a proper rant.
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hey - since we're ranting and I've exercised (near) admirable restraint for all these months could I piggyback my rants onto the ones already mentioned...
1) your and you're
2) it's and its
3) where and were
4) to and too
I could go on but won't - what really kills me - most of the mistakes are made by people who speak only one language - English/American
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
that is a good rant - I'll grant you the rant - the rant I will grant...
However, I have also known many that've come seeking the cursor solution (mainly from ignorance) and once are "shown the right way" not only have become instant converts but are also now foremost in preaching from the "CursorsAreEvil" book...."forgive them for they knew not what they didn't know"...
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
Ah sush... do you like green eggs and ham?
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and...those apostrophes that sneak in everywhere where they're not supposed to...misused in contractions and abused in plurals...plural's
"Irregardless" - I've been valiantly turning a blind eye to all these and more...."weather" you choose to believe me or not is upto you -
there's also lose and loose...oh there's an endless list that's been pent up for days....Scott - you've opened the floodgates...
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
This English!
And on the top of everything, "we aren't know any programin'... ", aren't we?
This is an international site. A lot of participants speak imperfect English, but they are really good in their own languages and in their profession. As I mentioned when someone asked me about my opinion of English Query: "No use for me- my SQL is better than my English" Oops.... almost typed 'then' in this sentence... maybe it should be 'then'... not sure.
What I suggest: a lot of us would like to write better. Why don't you send a private friendly message to me if you see that I misused a word a couple of times?
Regards,Yelena Varsha
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... and when you offer help to these people, a response along the lines of: "My English is fine, thankyou" is often received!
I see this stuff every day (everyday??), but it gets no easier to swallow.
Phil
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
- Martin Rees
The absence of consumable DDL, sample data and desired results is, however, evidence of the absence of my response
- Phil Parkin -
Collect 'em all!
I personally collect commercials. The last one yesterday:
"People prefer us, Wireless because of the big Network..."
Some creators of radio commercials do not realise that a spoken word does not sound like a written word. The last 3 radio commercials of a college, a bank and a paint store talk about "personalized attention" which to me, non-native English speaker sure sounds like "personalized detention" when spoken.
Regards,Yelena Varsha
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Yelena - my gripe is only with those whose first language is English - I know for a fact that many of the people I have grievances with, have been born and brought up in the U.S, U.K, Australia etc..I get emails from top-level executives that never fail to horrify me with their ignorance and abuse of the English language - I know that you love reading as much as I do so you understand what it is to be passionate about a language right - maybe I'm too "old-school" or something but it does actually make me rabid and foaming at the mouth eveytime I see the complete massacre of both spelling and grammar...however, I would also like to say that until this post I didn't really give vent to my feelings at such length - it's all Scott's fault - he started it all - I was only agreeing with him, is all...
**ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI !!!** -
In my original post I pointed out that there are many people who do not have english as their first language. I also pointed out that I was trying to improve business communication in general. No matter what language you use; precision of communication is important. Let me give you an example of imprecise communication:
"Mommy where did I come from?" Her six year old asks. She thinks that it is way too early for that particular lecture and is about to tell him to wait when he continues. "Bobby came from Ireland, June came from France, where did I come from?" Just as it is important to know what the questioner is asking, it is very important to listen and get all the data before you act. If you can not communicate precisely it is impossible to answer the question. No matter what the language.
Disambiguate that!
Scott
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