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#1862539
Irv Lee wrote:@T6Harvard it's not just the accent that can give problems, when I started in IT, I had the problem of the Yorkshire usage of 'while' being interchangeable with "until" in "old Yorkshire speak". This meant that "Do while (x=1)" could be understood as "Do until (x=1)" if the actual context was not appreciated by those programming down the pits, but not to worry, once the pits closed, these programmers with the problem were all re-employed to code the new CAA Portal, so as far as I know, it all ended well...

PL/1 programmer? :D
#1862540
Listening to the BBC olympic coverage over breakfast I noticed that Dan Walker was dropping his "g"s as well. Maybe Lord Jones is just jealous of Alex's gorgeous legs?
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1862543
Flyingfemme wrote:
Irv Lee wrote:@T6Harvard it's not just the accent that can give problems, when I started in IT, I had the problem of the Yorkshire usage of 'while' being interchangeable with "until" in "old Yorkshire speak". This meant that "Do while (x=1)" could be understood as "Do until (x=1)" if the actual context was not appreciated by those programming down the pits, but not to worry, once the pits closed, these programmers with the problem were all re-employed to code the new CAA Portal, so as far as I know, it all ended well...

PL/1 programmer? :D

Initially, for a short time, AlgolW, but very quickly pl/1 but then became one of the UK possibly European IBM experts in a very weird mind-bending array language called APL/APL2, it required neuron connections in the brain to be rerouted to be good at it, which of course is very similar to what is needed to understand LAPL validity. Extremely inefficient if you didn't rewire your brain, fantastic if you did.
#1862593
Irv Lee wrote:[...] then became one of the UK possibly European IBM experts in a very weird mind-bending array language called APL/APL2, it required neuron connections in the brain to be rerouted to be good at it, which of course is very similar to what is needed to understand LAPL validity.

Ah, I remember APL: never wrote any code myself, but I had a professor at the university (late 80s) who loved it and never missed a chance to explain how every problem could be solved with a "simple" APL program. If there are any youngsters here (are there?) who do programming but have never heard of APL, check it out on the Wiki page.

APL is, of course, short for "A Programming Language". It always reminds me of a Dilbert strip where Dilbert tries to recruit co-workers to "the TTP project". When asked what "TTP" stands for, the answer was that it was short for "The TTP Project". :lol:
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By Irv Lee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1862599
akg1486 wrote:
Irv Lee wrote:[...] then became one of the UK possibly European IBM experts in a very weird mind-bending array language called APL/APL2, it required neuron connections in the brain to be rerouted to be good at it, which of course is very similar to what is needed to understand LAPL validity.

Ah, I remember APL: never wrote any code myself, but I had a professor at the university (late 80s) who loved it and never missed a chance to explain how every problem could be solved with a "simple" APL program. If there are any youngsters here (are there?) who do programming but have never heard of APL, check it out on the Wiki page.

it needed a special keyboard for the operators, and although you could programme incredibly badly (and almost guarantee to knock the CPU and I/O channels for 6), if you stopped thinking 'sequential operations' and thought matrix and transpositions, it could be turned to most things very efficiently, including business data processing or auditing. I hit lucky once, big international conference on a new APL2 operator (cannot remember what, but a new 'wow' on some mathematical matrix operation), the developer shows a 12 by 12 matrix and also the result of the complex operator in 12 by 12 and describes the maths operations between the two, I happened to pick a random position in the 144 cells, did the maths in my head for that one value and found it was wrong. So I asked. It was one cell they had accidentally deleted and then written in what they remembered it had been just for the presentation. They all thought I'd done the whole matrix in my head in a few seconds. Slept alone again that night.
APL is, of course, short for "A Programming Language". It always reminds me of a Dilbert strip where Dilbert tries to recruit co-workers to "the TTP project". When asked what "TTP" stands for, the answer was that it was short for "The TTP Project". :lol:

D-Day, T-Tag, J-Jour.
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By akg1486
#1862603
Irv Lee wrote:
APL is, of course, short for "A Programming Language". It always reminds me of a Dilbert strip where Dilbert tries to recruit co-workers to "the TTP project". When asked what "TTP" stands for, the answer was that it was short for "The TTP Project". :lol:

D-Day, T-Tag, J-Jour.

Department of redundancy department. :D
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By kanga
#1862652
akg1486 wrote:..
APL is, of course, short for "A Programming Language". It always reminds me of a Dilbert strip where Dilbert tries to recruit co-workers to "the TTP project". When asked what "TTP" stands for, the answer was that it was short for "The TTP Project". :lol:


:thumright:

And IIRC 'Yahoo' was either originally or explained by a later 'backronym' as "Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle" :)
#1862973
PeteSpencer wrote:I see poor old Digby, Lord Jones is getting stick for criticising the delectable Alex Scott on BBC Olympic duty for droppin' the 'g's off words ending 'ing'. (on Twitter)
...


And over the pandemic many people have forgotten how to pronounce "to", instead doing some sort of urban slang. Not sure if it is some attempt to be "cool", "trendy" or "inclusive"?

As the Gov and news readers have being doing it for months/recent years, I presume it is becoming impossible for others to learn proper English irrespective of their origins.

In my youth and learning foreign languages I recall the importance of getting the pronunciation correct otherwise it can sometime significantly change the meaning. Now we seem to be getting sloppy with English.
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By kanga
#1862997
GAFlyer4Fun wrote:.. it is becoming impossible for others to learn proper English irrespective of their origins.

In my youth and learning foreign languages I recall the importance of getting the pronunciation correct .. we seem to be getting sloppy with English.


A topic which interests me as a nomad, but for the same reason I am loth to criticise, or to define anything comprehensible but outside others' norms as 'wrong', let alone to ascribe it (as some seem to do) to 'laziness'. A narrow interpretation of 'proper' and 'correct' pronunciation of English is a relatively recent phenomenon, occasioned by the technology of broadcasting and 'the talkies'. The latter, especially Hollywood from '30s on, also had the opposite effect of making American pronunciations go from 'exotic' through 'trendy' to 'acceptable and even normal'.

Shakespeare gently mocked 'Fluellen' for his Welsh accent, but was himself mocked in London for his Midlands one. Lloyd George and Ramsey Macdonald were mocked by political opponents for their Welsh and Scots ones, and more recently Brian Mawhinney and Kate Hoey for their Ulster ones, even within their own (UK national) political Parties.

A cassette tape sent by us in '80s from US to grandparents at Christmas showed that our then small children then had US accents. They then progressed (via Canadian!) through Gloucestershire ones at school to approximate 'British RP' ones. The one now in NSW sounds a bit Australian to us while (I'm sure) sounding distinctly Brit to Australians. But I expect my children's French is still tinged with Canadian, as mine is (having been Swiss in my childhood). And I've probably lost all my Liverpool, but it might well come back if I were to resettle there.