Fedora 9 updates-testing report

[Bill Crawford]

2008/5/21 Patrick O'Callaghan <pocallaghan at gmail.com>:

> However I would take issue with you on the "sound card on your system"
> point. "On" has a multitude of meanings (in fact I just used another one
> in the previous sentence) and this instance is consistent with common
> usage in the computer industry. I'm all for clarity in expression, but
> anyone who doesn't understand this meaning of "on" is going to have real
> problems reading documentation.

While you have a point (I almost wrote "whilst" ;o)) it's partly the
computer industry that's responsible for this trend that's making it
harder and harder to be precise about one wants when one needs to be
(e.g. when making bug reports, which makes it particularly ironic). On
being one of the most ambiguous words now, and that, I think, is a
problem. Yes, we can always say "atop" if we really mean "on top of"
(methinks Alan had his tongue firmly embedded on his cheek when he
mentioned the sound card thing, but of course he's quite right that it
makes translation difficult; in most languages "on top of", "using"
and "attached to" are quite distinct still, whereas we are now using
"on" to mean those and more).