Mass Changes

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 07:04:43 -0400 Neal <neal413 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> broke off
from drinking a cup of tea at to write:

Thankfully, no. But it is prevalent.

<g>

Point is, when we use the word popular, we generally mean that it is used
due to it being liked. You really never hear the word describe something
which is just common. "Prevalent" or just "common" is a better choice
there.

We often use the word 'popular' for something that is prevalent
through free choice, such as consumer goods.

Fowler, in 'Modern English Usage' uses the term 'popular' to describe
usage of the word inoxicated of which he says 'so long popular as to
be not now recognizable for a medical term at all', here the word
'popular' is used to describe the common usage of a word in everyday
language by ordinary people. The word 'intoxicated' is so commonly
used that Fowler describes it as 'popular'.

In contrast, the word 'common' as an adjective means 'shared alike by
all the persons of things in question, or by all humankind'.

'Prevalent' would also be inappropriate to describe a Newsreader
application, since it would indicate too large a market share as
though to not use the 'prevalent' application should mark one out as
odd.

Popular is the correct term then in the context of describing a
Newsreader with a large user-base.

Matt

--
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On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:22:24 +0200 Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) tiscali (DOT) nl> broke
off from drinking a cup of tea at to write:

Popular is a correct word for things that are used a lot,
but I do agree it is clearer to use a word like "common".

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer! One might
wonder - not without some irony when considering Microsoft - if
'common' was being used as an adjective in the sense of 'vulgar' !

Matt

--
Free searchable encyclopaedia content for your web site:
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/xsearch.htm

Matt Probert wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:22:24 +0200 Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) tiscali (DOT) nl> broke
off from drinking a cup of tea at to write:

Popular is a correct word for things that are used a lot,
but I do agree it is clearer to use a word like "common".

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

You caught me.. I hang out with the illiterate too much. I
am used to make them understand me :-(

One might
wonder - not without some irony when considering Microsoft - if
'common' was being used as an adjective in the sense of 'vulgar' !

Not necessarily a bad thing (when considering Microsoft - of
course) ;-)


--
Els
http://locusmeus.com/
Sonhos vem. Sonhos vão. O resto é imperfeito.
- Renato Russo -

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:30:48 GMT, Matt Probert
<comments (AT) probertencyclopaedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

I'd just like to inform everyone that the topic of this thread is Mass
Changes. What does this conversation have to do with Mass Changes?

And before someone calls *me* for being off-topic, I'd also like to inform
you all that Mass will no longer be in Latin, it will be in English and
take place at 11am rather than 10am, on Sundays. Have a nice day.

Grey

--
The technical axiom that nothing is impossible sinisterly implies the
pitfall corollary that nothing is ridiculous.
- http://www.greywyvern.com - Orca Knowledgebase: Completely CSS styleable
Knowledgebase/FAQ system

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 10:55:51 -0400, GreyWyvern <spam (AT) greywyvern (DOT) com> wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:30:48 GMT, Matt Probert
comments (AT) probertencyclopaedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

I'd just like to inform everyone that the topic of this thread is Mass
Changes. What does this conversation have to do with Mass Changes?

And before someone calls *me* for being off-topic, I'd also like to
inform you all that Mass will no longer be in Latin, it will be in
English and take place at 11am rather than 10am, on Sundays. Have a
nice day.

I thought this was a thread about gay marriage laws in Massachusetts...

GreyWyvern wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:30:48 GMT, Matt Probert
comments (AT) probertencyclopaedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

I'd just like to inform everyone that the topic of this thread is Mass
Changes. What does this conversation have to do with Mass Changes?

And before someone calls *me* for being off-topic, I'd also like to
inform you all that Mass will no longer be in Latin, it will be in
English and take place at 11am rather than 10am, on Sundays. Have a
nice day.

<g>

Here you go. Changed the subject line.

--
Els
http://locusmeus.com/
Sonhos vem. Sonhos vão. O resto é imperfeito.
- Renato Russo -

Neal wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 10:55:51 -0400, GreyWyvern <spam (AT) greywyvern (DOT) com> wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:30:48 GMT, Matt Probert
comments (AT) probertencyclopaedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

I'd just like to inform everyone that the topic of this thread is
Mass Changes. What does this conversation have to do with Mass Changes?

And before someone calls *me* for being off-topic, I'd also like to
inform you all that Mass will no longer be in Latin, it will be in
English and take place at 11am rather than 10am, on Sundays. Have a
nice day.

I thought this was a thread about gay marriage laws in Massachusetts...

Elaborate on the link between gay marriage and hairloss?

Hang on, I know :-) In a gay marriage, there's likely to be
twice as much hairloss as in a hetero marriage :-D

eh.. on second thought.. could be half as much as well..

--
Els
http://locusmeus.com/
Sonhos vem. Sonhos vão. O resto é imperfeito.
- Renato Russo -

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 16:11:27 +0200 Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) tiscali (DOT) nl> broke
off from drinking a cup of tea at to write:

Matt Probert wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:22:24 +0200 Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) tiscali (DOT) nl> broke
off from drinking a cup of tea at to write:

Popular is a correct word for things that are used a lot,
but I do agree it is clearer to use a word like "common".

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

You caught me.. I hang out with the illiterate too much. I
am used to make them understand me :-(

I should like to apologise to you Els, and make it clear that I did
not intend to imply that Els or any other particular indiviudual is
illiterate. Sorry if I caused you any upset.

One might
wonder - not without some irony when considering Microsoft - if
'common' was being used as an adjective in the sense of 'vulgar' !

Not necessarily a bad thing (when considering Microsoft - of
course) ;-)

<g>

Matt

--
Free searchable encyclopaedia content for your web site:
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/xsearch.htm

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 10:55:51 -0400 GreyWyvern <spam (AT) greywyvern (DOT) com>
broke off from drinking a cup of tea at GreyWyvern.com to write:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:30:48 GMT, Matt Probert
comments (AT) probertencyclopaedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

I'd just like to inform everyone that the topic of this thread is Mass
Changes. What does this conversation have to do with Mass Changes?

And before someone calls *me* for being off-topic, I'd also like to inform
you all that Mass will no longer be in Latin, it will be in English and
take place at 11am rather than 10am, on Sundays. Have a nice day.

BTW, sorry to get back on topic, but I do have a simple command line
application that takes three parameters: file spec, search string,
replacement string and does an automatic replacement on all matching
files in the current directory.

If some one has a freeware site, they are welcome to a copy to make
available.

On the other hand, something similar could be written in a few lines
of Perl and posted here. Okay last to post the (quick and dirty) Perl
solution is a sissy! <g>

Matt

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 17:35:20 +0200 Els <els.aNOSPAM (AT) tiscali (DOT) nl> broke
off from drinking a cup of tea at to write:

Neal wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 10:55:51 -0400, GreyWyvern <spam (AT) greywyvern (DOT) com> wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:30:48 GMT, Matt Probert
comments (AT) probertencyclopaedia (DOT) com> wrote:

Clearer? To the illiterate, perhaps, for if one understands the
meaning of the word, then it is certainly not clearer!

I'd just like to inform everyone that the topic of this thread is
Mass Changes. What does this conversation have to do with Mass Changes?

And before someone calls *me* for being off-topic, I'd also like to
inform you all that Mass will no longer be in Latin, it will be in
English and take place at 11am rather than 10am, on Sundays. Have a
nice day.

I thought this was a thread about gay marriage laws in Massachusetts...

Elaborate on the link between gay marriage and hairloss?

Hang on, I know :-) In a gay marriage, there's likely to be
twice as much hairloss as in a hetero marriage :-D

Thinking lesbian....the mind *BOGGLES* !!!!!!

eh.. on second thought.. could be half as much as well..

<BG> well caught!

But, is not hair loss related to that male hormone.....Okay, you win,
I'm a sad no-life. I'll be quiet.

Matt