Subj : Re: Off Topic (was: MS XCOPY v 4DOS internal COPY) To : Steve From : R.A.G. Seely Date : Sun Feb 10 2002 10:00 pm From: R.A.G..Seely@f3.n342.z1.cereal.mv.com (R.A.G. Seely) Subject: Re: Off Topic (was: MS XCOPY v 4DOS internal COPY) From: "R.A.G. Seely" "E. S. (Steve) Fabian" wrote in news:3C66C635.E8F3A918@BellAtlantic.net: > My understanding of English is that GREATER has two meanings - one > meaning is used e.g. in Alexander the Great, the other for something > with a measurable quantity. Since versions in software or hardware are > neither size differences, nor marks of excellence, I think "greater" is > an abuse of English. Must be my training as a mathematician, but "greater" also means "larger" - or more accurately "more positive" (since -5 > -10 is a true statement: "minus 5 is greater than minus 10") ... The point I think you and Outsider are missing is that one often is referring to version *numbers* when saying "4DOS 6.0 or higher" or "4NT 4.01 or greater" and so it is a legitimate use to say "bigger", "larger", "greater", or other adjectives referring to the size (more precisely, the ordinal position) of the numbers involved. Of course, there is ambiguity here, so that one might be also (syntactically, rather than semantically) be referring to the *versions* themselves, in which case "newer", "later", and so on are correct. In either case, I think phrases like "an abuse of English" are probably a bit extreme - but I guess that was their point. -= rags =- -- To reply by email, use "@" not "__A@T__" Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. -- |Fidonet: R.A.G. Seely 1:342/3 | | Origin: The Cereal Port BBS (603)899-3335 199.125.78.133 (1:132/152) --- # Origin: (1:132/152.4) * Origin: Baddog BBS (1:218/903) .