Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/7] Bisect dunno

From: Marius Storm-Olsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:04:02 +0200

David Kastrup said the following on 14.10.2007 19:48:
> Marius Storm-Olsen <[email-masked]> writes:
> 
>> Wincent Colaiuta said the following on 14.10.2007 18:35:
>>
>>> "undecided" sounds good to me. It should be clear to non-native
>>> speakers of English (at least, clearer than "dunno").
>> What about just "unknown"?
> 
> I tend to nitpick to the degree of silliness when my own suggestions
> are concerned, but "unknown" sounds to me like the state _before_ the
> test.  If a person says he is "undecided" about something that means
> that he _has_ thought about it already.  "Undecidable" might bring
> this distinction across more strongly, but it is a more complicated
> word and it insinuates that it is _impossible_ to come to a decision
> regardless of the spent effort.
> 
> "unknown" clearly is much better than "dunno" though even if my own
> favorite would be "undecided".

What then about a good'ol programming favorite, "void"? :-)

I agree that "unknown" might be a state even _before_ a person has 
determined if a case is good or bad (same for 'dunno' actually: "- Do 
you know if it works? - I dunno yet") When I think more about it, I 
really like "void"..

"Argh, this test is void, because someone messed with it"
"We can't make heads or tails of this one, so it must be void"

-- 
.marius