Re: [PATCH 0/7] Bisect dunno

From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
Date: Oct 15, 2007, 08:25 UTC
Message-ID: <86odf0pywz.fsf@lola.quinscape.zz>
In-Reply-To: <471302D2.6010405@trolltech.com>

Marius Storm-Olsen <marius@trolltech.com> writes:

Show 21 quoted lines

> David Kastrup said the following on 14.10.2007 19:48:
>> Marius Storm-Olsen <marius@trolltech.com> 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"? :-)

Huh? void is a type, not a value. void would insinuate that it was wrong to ask the question, not that its answer could not be determined.

> 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"..

Well, I don't.

Basically, I would say that this seems to be so much a matter of personal taste that we should at this point of time leave the decision of how to pick this to Junio. Whether this gets resolved by vote or by authority: seems like the fine lines are no longer worth the time invested in discussing them.

-- 
David Kastrup