On Nov 22, 2013, at 2:29 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner(a)auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
On 11/23/13 10:17, inode0 wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner(a)auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>> Just read some stuff on this list about "spins", a concept which had
>> not previously impinged itself upon my consciousness. So I went and
>> had a look at the
spins.fedoraproject.org page. It started off by saying
>> "What is a spin? Fedora spins are alternate version of Fedora, tailored
>> ...".
>>
>> For God's sake, people!!! That's "alternative versions"!!!
Alternate
>> means "every other" or "every second". Alternative means
"available as
>> another possibility". Saying "alternate" when you mean
"alternative" is
>> sloppy, lazy thinking and irritates and confuses the reader.
>>
>> Why can't computer geeks learn to write English correctly?
> In American usage this is acceptable and common.
But wrong nevertheless. It conflates two quite distinct ideas, blurs
the meaning and diminishes the language.
Nope, you're wrong. Find a copy of New Oxford American Dictionary and look up the
words and usage. I seriously doubt even Oxford English makes such a big distinction
between two words that share the same etymology and have no good reason for meaning
different things.
Chris Murphy