Cato's Grammar Grumble

[Cato]

A handy excuse for some really terrible behaviour.

Aye, EyeResist!  Very true!

My daughter, for example, was recently able during an Internet exchange to twist my wife's words in more ways than a Kentucky county road map and quickly fomented a family feud.   

This feud will take a while to untwist itself!

[Karl Henning]

Not that one expects elegant expression (even when enunciation is clear) in pop, pop, pop music ... but what is the consensus on the following line, from a Stygian singer:

"Is it any wonder I'm sane at all?"

One processes it, to be sure; but how does it parse out?

[eyeresist]

Not that one expects elegant expression (even when enunciation is clear) in pop, pop, pop music ... but what is the consensus on the following line, from a Stygian singer:

"Is it any wonder I'm sane at all?"

One processes it, to be sure; but how does it parse out?

"I'm sane at all" is no problem, just a syntax inversion. "Is it any wonder" bugs me because it's one of those expressions which has gone slightly adrift of its literal meaning. Specifically, the use of the word "any" seems odd to me. Also, I'd prefer to see a "that" (or "if", at a stretch) in the middle of that sentence, just for the sake of completeness.

[Cato]

"I'm sane at all" is no problem, just a syntax inversion. "Is it any wonder" bugs me because it's one of those expressions which has gone slightly adrift of its literal meaning. Specifically, the use of the word "any" seems odd to me. Also, I'd prefer to see a "that" (or "if", at a stretch) in the middle of that sentence, just for the sake of completeness.

Agreed! 

The "question form" perhaps is Karl's bug: "It is a wonder that I'm sane at all."

[DavidRoss]

Words do not always mean what they say, and tone is always important: this is why the Internet foments so many arguments and misunderstandings.   

Is that why? I always thought it was because the internet is rife with shallow-thinking, self-absorbed, thin-skinned, perpetual adolescents too full of themselves and their ignorant prejudices to make the effort required to understand something outside the realm of their pre-existing beliefs.

[Cato]

Is that why? I always thought it was because the internet is rife with shallow-thinking, self-absorbed, thin-skinned, perpetual adolescents too full of themselves and their ignorant prejudices to make the effort required to understand something outside the realm of their pre-existing beliefs.

Always a possibility!   

[Cato]

Some time ago, I mentioned that I asked my banker son one day about his daily activities as a Senior Financial Analyst for a local billion dollar bank.

His reply was designed to stop all questioning.  He said that on this day he worked on: "Monotonic interpolation of cubic splines."            

Translation: he attempts to boil down a large amount of data to find a pattern obscured by the size of the data, so that a model can be made for computer projection of possible futures using the pattern.

On the weekend our other son arrived: a mathematician working for a computer firm in northern Ohio.

He had an interview with a company here in central Ohio: the interviewer was happy to discover that my son knew all about...

"Ruby cucumber in an agile scrum environment."              

Translation (I think this is right): "Cucumber" is a version of a programming language called "ruby" which is used to develop software in an evolutionary manner known as "agile scrum."  ("Scrum" is the rugby term where the playing starts over because of a minor infraction of the rules or the ball has gone out of bounds.)  Thus if a program produces an error, it will restart after the error is fixed and keep on going, until another error is found, "evolving" to an ever higher level to become error-free.

I discovered that "Cucumber" was chosen as the name of the language because fixed errors show up in green type on the screen.  "Green as a cucumber" means all systems are go!

[Concord]

Not that one expects elegant expression (even when enunciation is clear) in pop, pop, pop music ... but what is the consensus on the following line, from a Stygian singer:

"Is it any wonder I'm sane at all?"

One processes it, to be sure; but how does it parse out?

The expected answer to any rhetorical question beginning "Is it any wonder ...?" is, "No, it's not." But to say, "No, it's not a wonder you're sane at all," doesn't seem to be the answer he's going for. Don't know the song, but I'd bet that what he wants to say is, "It's a wonder I'm sane at all," or "It's a wonder I'm not insane," which aren't the answers you get with this question.

[eyeresist]

Agreed! 

The "question form" perhaps is Karl's bug: "It is a wonder that I'm sane at all."

I wasn't familiar with the song. In context, the question is nonsensical.

[kishnevi]

His reply was designed to stop all questioning.  He said that on this day he worked on: "Monotonic interpolation of cubic splines."            

Well, at least it's not moronic interpolation of cubic splines,  which is all some bank analysts seem capable of producing....

[petrarch]

"Ruby cucumber in an agile scrum environment."              

Translation (I think this is right): "Cucumber" is a version of a programming language called "ruby" which is used to develop software in an evolutionary manner known as "agile scrum."  ("Scrum" is the rugby term where the playing starts over because of a minor infraction of the rules or the ball has gone out of bounds.)  Thus if a program produces an error, it will restart after the error is fixed and keep on going, until another error is found, "evolving" to an ever higher level to become error-free.

Allow me to clarify: Cucumber is a testing framework written in Ruby, and provides functionality to allow programmers to specify testing scenarios and expected outcomes. It also has the capability to execute the tests against the program (effectively running the program in an automated manner, simulating the relevant inputs and checking the corresponding outputs for each test), flagging any that fail. This leads to (especially in the context of having a large codebase that is being changed) incremental development of the programs ('evolutionary' is also a good word, but not in the sense that you inferred), whereby programmers fix the scenarios that fail one by one until the whole suite of tests runs successfully. It also is incremental in the sense that if there is new functionality that needs to be added to the program, this can be done in parallel with the corresponding tests--engaging in the same 'code-test-debug/fix' cycle.

Scrum and agile methodologies have to do with programmer activity, not program (it's a 'development process'): Daily short meetings (15 mins, typically) where each one reports what they accomplished the previous day, what they intend to do next and whether there are any blockers.

Hope this helps.

[Cato]

Well, at least it's not moronic interpolation of cubic splines,  which is all some bank analysts seem capable of producing....

My son's immediate superior was fired last Friday for "activities not connected to the bank."     Moronism (NOT Mormonism) was probably involved.

Many thanks to Petrarch for further clarifying "Ruby cucumber in an agile scrum environment."   

[Karl Henning]

Many thanks to Petrarch for further clarifying "Ruby cucumber in an agile scrum environment."   

Yes. For to the casual reader, it does look like the line that was excised from "Strawberry Fields Forever."

[Concord]

Yes. For to the casual reader, it does look like the line that was excised from "Strawberry Fields Forever."

More like "I Am the Walrus."

[Concord]

Allow me to clarify: Cucumber is a testing framework written in Ruby, and provides functionality to allow programmers to specify testing scenarios and expected outcomes. It also has the capability to execute the tests against the program (effectively running the program in an automated manner, simulating the relevant inputs and checking the corresponding outputs for each test), flagging any that fail. This leads to (especially in the context of having a large codebase that is being changed) incremental development of the programs ('evolutionary' is also a good word, but not in the sense that you inferred), whereby programmers fix the scenarios that fail one by one until the whole suite of tests runs successfully. It also is incremental in the sense that if there is new functionality that needs to be added to the program, this can be done in parallel with the corresponding tests--engaging in the same 'code-test-debug/fix' cycle.

What hath God wrought? ...

[North Star]

And this one by a mystery author...

As a very young man, I had a discussion about Schoenberg with Alexander Tcherepnin, some of whose later works dabble with the 12-tone method (e.g. the Fifth Piano Concerto), and I remember giving my opinion that the "atonal" works like Jakobsleiter and the Five Pieces for Orchestra seemed more interesting than the "method" works (e.g. Third String Quartet).

Anyway, the underlined part is what bugs me - I'm not saying that it's wrong, but it looks messy. Could 'whose some later works' work better?
E: Yeah, bad idea. The original makes sense really, but my brains forgot that this was English, not Finnish.

[Karl Henning]

No, that's assuredly not English.

[Gold Knight]

Misusing the word it's--instead of its--to indicate possession irks me no end!   

[eyeresist]

Misusing the word it's--instead of its--to indicate possession irks me no end!

To be fair, it's one of the more arbitrary grammatical rules.

[Gold Knight]

Quote from: eyeresist on Today at 06:22:40 PM

To be fair, it's one of the more arbitrary grammatical rules.

I am not sure exactly what you mean by this; after all, aren't most rules--grammatical or otherwise--arbitrary by the very nature of their being guidelines formed by an unknown group of people? For me, the distinction between it's and its is very clear. I am continually amazed at how often well-educated people continue to confuse and get them wrong in everyday written usage.