emacs-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: typo in accept-process-output (process.c)


From: Stephen Berman
Subject: Re: typo in accept-process-output (process.c)
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2007 13:02:05 +0200
User-agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1.50 (gnu/linux)

On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:50:45 -0400 Michael Olson <address@hidden> wrote:

> Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:
>
>>     So the job only has to be done once, what replacement will people
>>     be happy with? Personally, I think plain "if" would be just fine,
>>     except perhaps to the tediously literal-minded.
>>
>> In some cases, just "if" is clear.
>>
>>     Failing that, "only if".  As a last resort, "if and only if"
>>     (yuck).
>>
>> Where just "if" is not clear, you need to get creative.  Find a
>> rewrite which is clear.  "If and only if" is ok when you need it, but
>> since it is a bit longer, you might look for a better method.
>
> The conditionals "only if" and "if" are both unidirectional, whereas "if
> and only if" is bidirectional.  If you want to preserve the logic, it is
> best to change "iff" to "if and only if".  It's not nearly as gross as
> changing the meaning would be.

The logic textbook by Kalish and Montague uses "`exactly on condition
that', and sometimes `just in case', as stylistic variants of `if and
only if'."

Steve Berman





reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]