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greetings kind regards
this is a specimen of a pet peeve i wish to trouble your kind selves with for no logical reason i can think of . i have always been irritated with the use of the term "snippet" upon reference to a brief sample of code . i have finally found what i believe is a superior term for no other reason than it does not irritate me id est "specimen" . perhaps i will be successful in changing the common nomenclature as i believe i may have been some years ago id est late 70s early 80s whilst the term "excellent" entered common usage . well i am stating here and now i believe i and not Keanu Reeves may have been the responsible party .
kind regards
"Back to regularly scheduled program"
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It's a fairly common English word and just means a small piece cut from a larger one. So quite appropriate really. It's poor speling or grammar that I find irritating.
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perhaps that is why i am troubled by the use of the term as i have encountered it id est in explanatory articles of this or that C++ feature a brief code sample / specimen is presented of discussed feature w/ no indication of being from a larger text . if it were a true snippet i would prefer the term "excerpt" . so as far as i am concerned it is not a snippet a term i have never encountered prior to reading said C++ articles but rather a sample / specimen . also "snippet" sounds like a tool in a woman's sewing basket or perhaps a kind of bird .
as for proper spelling i take some pleasure in e-mailing companies of spelling mistakes i find on their web sites .
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I'm not sure Richard was referring to the spelling of the "snippet" or, in general with the spelling/formatting of your message(s). Do you abhor capital letters and find a sadistic pleasure in placing a space before the period?
Please, do take it with a grain/bag of salt, as a friendly ribbing at a time of joy and relaxation.
Cheers,
Mircea
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greetings & kind regards
it did not occur to myself the Honorable Mr. MacCutchan was referring to the spelling/formatting of my message .
i do not abhor capital letters nor do i find sadistic pleasure in placing a space before the period . it is simply that i find it more pleasing to the eye .
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder 😀
Mircea
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you are of course correct . it appears I or | or l or i must suffer the known sufferings of others for the sake of this minor pleasure . period .
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The problem with English is not that it borrows words and syntax from other languages, but that it chases those other languages down back alleys and mugs them for words and syntax.
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If all those foreigners had not been so keen to pillage our land we would have a nice pure language by now.
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Hmm, possibly so, but which language would that be?
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Well, certainly not what we now know as English.
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I've a suspicion that the keenness on pillaging was the other way round during an attempt to paint the entire world map pink.
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Well most nations/cultures have been doing it from time immemorial. In relative terms the Mongol and Roman empires were as big; only lack of technology stopped them at the borders of Europe/Asia./
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My pet peeve: individuals who use lower case letters for first person singular
"A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants"
Chuckles the clown
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i agree.
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I or | or l or i am sorry i am causing your kind self this irritation .
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Then demonstrate your sorryness by not doing it.
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I or | or l or i am ashamed to admit to some irritation .
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Would "code extract" be acceptable?
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thank you . yes a very good term . assuming of course it was indeed extracted .
kind regards
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extract is a very good term when used as noun.
but the terms snippet and sample would be understood equally as well.
def: noun
something extracted.
a passage taken from a book, article, etc.; excerpt; quotation.
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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You remind me of a high school English teacher I had (circa 1981) who railed against the over-use of the word "awesome" at that time.
modified 29-Dec-23 12:16pm.
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I'm with him/her on awesome - the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race is oarsome <groan>
In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. - Hunter S Thompson - RIP
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BernardIE5317 wrote: i have finally found what i believe is a superior term
Not that I see.
From google
Specimen: an example of something such as a product or piece of work, regarded as typical of its class or group
snippet: a small piece or brief extract.
The correct usage for the second would be when one presents code which cannot, by itself, successfully compile.
And to my mind, as with the definition, implies that is 'small'.
Consider the 'specimen' in the following
Largest and heaviest animals - Wikipedia[^]
"with the largest known specimen being 33.6 m (110.2 ft) long and the largest weighted specimen being 190 tonnes"
That is using the word to refer to an entire animal. (Not small.) And it implies the possibility that other specimens might exist which could be larger.
Following is a paper related to programming which is using 'specimen' which fits the definition above also but which presumably also provides code that can compile. (Pay wall I believe but synopsis provides information.)
A specimen of parallel programming: parallel merge sort implementation: ACM Inroads: Vol 1, No 4[^]
modified 29-Dec-23 12:14pm.
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Or a specimen may simply be something (whole or in part) to be studied, examined, or tested. They have jars for that.
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