" Grille " versus " Grill "

[GeneralAnarchy]

I think grill is also a verb.

Nothing to worry about. We have different things like bell and belle and nobody suggests one is wrong or more American, they are just different.

[tasdrouille]

It's grille. I guess it's an ecomodder induced language deformation that I have been using grille to describe all frameworks of parallel bars blocking an opening. I was once strolling around in DC and asked a guard a question about the "grille" surrounding the white house. After repeating the word 2 or 3 times in my thick french accent, I got "it's called a fence" as an answer. I smiled, thinking "whatever", and went on my way.

[Piwoslaw]

Well of course you Francophones will vote for the version with the silent 'e'
Google Translate says that grille is spelled the same in both French and English:

1. grid
2. gate
3. grille
4. grate
5. rack
6. grating
7. grid circuit

[GeneralAnarchy]

Originally Posted by tasdrouille

It's grille.

That's the spelling I use. Webster's says both are OK, grille being preferred. Besides we can't say what a spelling "is", because these are just representative spellings not ontological assertions. If I spell the thing "wxyz" and somebody knows in advance I intend this wxyz spelling to refers such parallel bars, then such a spelling, however unpopular, was still succesful. Mathematicians are wise to call things X when they can get away with it. That is all that seems to matter.

[Piwoslaw]

[OT]
You're not a mathematician, are you? (I am)

Speking of mathematicians naming things however they please, I remember when one of my teachers said "OK, let's use this equation in an example with actual numbers, like a, b, and c."
[/OT]

[GeneralAnarchy]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

"OK, let's use this equation in an example with actual numbers, like a, b, and c."

Yes, as much as possible. That variable/constant distinction is great. Or better when one says "R is a binary relation" or "H is an operator". Even without letters, "constants" such as 0 seem pretty arbitrary. Now I learn the number 0 is just another name for the empty set because of von Neumann ordinals.

[tasdrouille]

Speaking about math, I need to rant a bit.

How I hate it when I encounter equations in papers and I have to search through all the pages for the definitions of whatever they used to represent members of the equation. What makes it worse is that each field has its own "standards", meaning that G in this field of research is commonly used to represent that and G in that other field is this, and all this is "common knowledge" within the field.

I guess not making things easy to outsiders of a field is a way to keep the elite status associated with the field of research. It seems like authors only think they're going to be read by their direct peers. Anyway, enough for the rant and long live the people who can dumb things down for me.

[Piwoslaw]

Tas, the problem with scientific papers is that as they get more and more advanced, you need more and more background to understand them. When someone publishes their research, they define every new term, and often a few which are in earlier papers on the subject, plus citations to helpful sources. If they were to define everything from the ground up, then the "paper" would be a multivolume brick.

So yes, it is a pain when just the paper isn't enough to understand what's going on. But it is more efficient than rewriting the history of that whole branch of science each time someone slightly changes a single equation or gives a new proof of something-or-other. It's a compromise.

[tasdrouille]

Oftentimes the information is mostly in the paper, but just scattered. A simple lexicon page in every paper with A is this and B is that would make things so much simpler for everyone.

A lot of master or doctoral thesis I've read have those, it's really handy for outsiders to quickly reference variables and cross reference the equations between fields of study.

[markweatherill]

Originally Posted by endurance

Ah, but that neglects the Brits attempts to get everyone to drive on the wrong side of the road.

We have Japan on our side though.
I recall Ireland's attempt to change from driving on the left to driving on the right a few years back... The plan was to stagger the new system's instroduction, so for one week, trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles would switch over, and the following week, private cars and all other traffic would switch.