Subject: Re: [PATCH] NET: fix wrong English expression in comments

From: Eric Dumazet <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 08:57:59 +0100

David Miller a écrit :
> From: joe tian <[email-masked]>
> Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:36:51 +0800
> 
>> 2009/1/12 Li Zefan <[email-masked]>:
>>>> @@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ struct inet_bind_bucket;
>>>>  struct inet_timewait_sock {
>>>>       /*
>>>>        * Now struct sock also uses sock_common, so please just
>>>> -      * don't add nothing before this first member (__tw_common) --acme
>>>> +      * don't add anything before this first member (__tw_common) --acme
>>> They are the same meaning...
>>>
>> I don't think they are the same meaning.
>> I think "don't add anything" means "do add nothing" but not means "don't add
>> nothing"
> 
> No offense to anyone, but the only people arguing for "correctness"
> seem to be non-native speakers of English.  Is this correct? :-)
> 
> As Ben tries to explain, "don't add nothing" is a colloquialism of
> English that in fact can mean "do not add"
> 
> It sounds amusing when read, and I'm not killing the character and
> personality of this comment just for some language lawyering.
> 
> No way.

Oh my God... time for me to check what is a colloquialism :)

According to wikipedia :

A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, 
writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms are also sometimes 
referred to collectively as "colloquial language". [1] Colloquialisms
or colloquial language is considered to be characteristic of or only
appropriate for casual, ordinary, familiar, or informal conversation
rather than formal speech or writing.[2] Dictionaries often display
colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier.

Ouch... back to coding :)