Literacy in this newsgroup (Electric hedge trimmer thread)

Exactly, dyslexia (where this is the problem) is one of those disabilities that does not stop people from being highly intelligent [1] but some people who suffer can't see a spelling mistake even if it's pointed out to them (unless they have the correct spelling along side) - 'ETH, TEH, HTE' could all been seen as 'THE' by the brain for example.

I am neither stupid, dyslexic, nor unable to spell.

I merel;y type faster, looking at teh keybnoard than I can do accurateely.

A hangover from being a coder where, in any case, you had to go over and re-do the whole thing to eliminate spaces and typos anyway, so the 'first draft' was always rough - and let the parser ID the erors for you.

char * source; while( parse_text(source)) { correct(source); } return OK;

/*

disabilities ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I never said you were any of the above, but sometimes you seem to have a problem in comprehending what others have said !....

Should that not be:-

char * source; while( ! parse_text(source)) { correct(source); } return OK;

Sorry - could not resist! ;-))

You may not often add people to your killfile, and I don't often get involved in flame wars, but this time I have to stick my hand up and put a vote in for TNP: his postings are not often correct in letter-order, but their grammar is better than those of many other posters, and their content is usually worthwhile.

Usually I cringe at such errors, but TNP has proved himself over time and you'll be missing some interesting posts if you make uk.d-i-y a regular haunt.

Now, what interests me about TNP is that his mistakes are, to a large extent, consistent: "the teh" is the classic example. I have never seen "eth" or "het" :-)

Hwyl!

M.

Precisely why I used it. I knew you would not refuse the challenge.

Never mind the quality, feel the width :-)

MBQ

I don't think I've ever seen "the" either! Personally I can't see the point of typing so fast that the words come out jumbled. Surely it doesn't save

As a 2-finger-typing programmer like TNP, I've witnessed many colleagues who type at a furious rate, matched only by the number of times they have to hit backspace as they go. Using the compiler to catch typos is a dangerous practice too. IMHO, fixing everything it reports takes a lot longer than typing more accurately in the first place.

Bob

IMO having any typos in the first place is not good, as a small percentage won't get noticed or parsed and tested out. So less typos typed = less bugs in finished code.

How does parse_text() and correct() know where they are in source? Some global variable somewhere ;)))

cheers, Pete.

That entirely depends on whether, as is conventional in C, you return a null for 'no error' reserving all possible integer values for ERROR codes...

That is a subjective opinion.

Knowing the quality of those who read here, they can do a better job of parsing than most compilers

Not at all. The linker will take care of that. They are by definition, some kind of unmentioned global variable.

Thats why I like C, unless otherwise mentioned, the functions are assumed to be integer returning and global in scope.

I could have included a header file, but it adds nothing to the discussion,.

In message , John Woodhall writes

And where would we be without NP's idiosyncratic use of our noble language

or the coffee - monitor interface effect of Eliza's posts?

In message , Owain writes

How did that final "s" get there?

In message , The Natural Philosopher writes

Just unwilling ?

Do it then ...

The end effect is the same. A typo is a spelling mistake for those who have to read your posts

Which is relevant, how ?

The end effect is the same

In message , Jim writes

Not if they insist on typing with caps lock on

In message , Jim writes

No, it just proves you are a wanker

In message , Bob writes

yes