[erlang-patches] trivia

[Ulf Wiger]

Another non-native speaker butting in, but at least I spent 6 years in the US in my youth… :)

Here is 'evidence' in the form of advice from the Purdue Online Writing Lab:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/1/

Matthias has a habit of giving me grammar advice on occasion, so I thought I'd repay the favor by backing him up on this.

"Remember, using a or an depends on the sound that begins the next word."
…

"Remember that these rules also apply when you use acronyms:

  Introductory Composition at Purdue (ICaP) handles first-year writing at 
  the University. Therefore, an ICaP memo generally discusses issues 
  concerning English 106 instructors.

Another case where this rule applies is when acronyms start with consonant letters but have vowel sounds:

  An MSDS (material safety data sheet) was used to record the data. 
  An SPCC plan (Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures plan) 
  will help us prepare for the worst."

BR,
Ulf W

On 9 Aug 2011, at 08:38, Matthias Lang wrote:

> 
> Andrew Thompson> >> I don't think the correction of 'a ssl socket' to
> Andrew Thompson> >> 'an ssl socket' are correct.
> 
> Henrik Nord> > Agree, it should be "a ssl socket" and "a ssl server"
> 
> Christian> I still believe "an ssl" is correct.  English is not my native 
> Christian> language,
> 
> English is my native language. I would write "An SSL socket". I.e.
> 'an' and capitalised SSL. I would do that for the reasons Christian
> referenced and also because this is what the RFC does.
> 
>> grep -ic "an SSL" rfc2246.txt
>  4
>  tmp >grep -ic "a SSL" rfc2246.txt
>  0
> 
> Andrew and Henrik, if you still "I don't think" and "I still believe", can
> you provide some evidence for you beliefs?
> 
> Fixing the Swenglish in the OTP docs is a good thing. Thanks for doing
> it, Christian.
> 
> Matt
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Ulf Wiger, CTO, Erlang Solutions, Ltd.
http://erlang-solutions.com



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