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Sander Rossel wrote: does anyone know how I can turn off this very specific "have to" to "must" rule?
I must research that, but for the moment, I have to ignore your query.
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Or you could just turn off the suggestion feature and happily go on about your life.
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Exactly. It's a suggestion from a word processor, not a compiler error.
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First thing I do is turn off the suggestion "feature". English is my primary and native language so I grew up learning how to speak and write it properly - I don't need some American software who thinks it knows better (it doesn't) telling me how to write.
My second language is American. Since I came to live in the US I thought I should learn the local language. It is surprisingly different.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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whilst I agree with your sentiment...
I don't need some American software who thinks it knows better
is grammatically incorrect. The American software is inanimate. 'who' should be 'that'
Live long and prosper
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Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Many years ago, I bought a book with the title "Machines who think". I am sure the title was deliberately chosen. I am equally sure that _Forogar_ chose his words equally deliberately.
(I really should pick up that book and read it again, to see what we - and the machines - were thinking back in 1979; my copy is the 1st edition.)
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CoolTeddyBear wrote: The American software is inanimate. 'who' should be 'that'
I know some Americans who that are rather inanimate themselves.
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In this case the "software" refers to the programmer's brain! As in "soft in the head".
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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*Ahem!* Forogar wrote: I don't need some American software who that thinks it knows better Let's keep the relative personal pronouns where they belong, eh?
No-one is above Skitt's Law.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I've got to be really careful, here, because even I'm not above Skitt's Law, but book titles are like headlines, so she's either anthropomorphising computers as an attention grabber, or to press the "smart device" aspect. Probably the former.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Forogar wrote: First thing I do is turn off the suggestion "feature". I leave it on because it makes me laugh.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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I feel your pain. Here in Switzerland, Office is set to German, and it keeps suggesting the use of ß (sharp s), even though in Switzerland that letter isn't used at all, and it's not on the keyboard either. (I had to copy-paste it here from another source)
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Alt&225 (225 on the numeric key pad)
It does not solve my Problem, but it answers my question
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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would/could autocorrect not be set alter ss to ß for you?
(I don't have DE language pack to test)
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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I think Stefan wanted exactly the opposite: NOT changing ss to ß. Avoiding the ß.
It really is frustrating when software insists on interpreting your input according to some other culture than your own. Typical examples are refusing to accept a decimal comma; over there in the US they use a decimal point, and then the rest of the world must obey to that. Or date formats. Or, when you type an abbreviation that is not in the editor's list recognized abbreviations (but it ought to be), and then insist on capitalizing the next word. Or systems insisting that URL (or in some cases: Any character string with embedded fullstops) is to be internally coded as a web link (that example is not culture dependent, but it is the same kind of frustration.)
There are countless such examples. Some of them can be avoided by proper configuration of the software - but sometimes deeply hidden in some intricate configuration spot you were not assumed to know of. Sometimes it isn't configurable. This is most common for open source software, so it is configurable: You can have access to the source code, so you can change it yourself...
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It does, but it shouldn't.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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you must remember that you have to be more concise in settings for Word's words.
after many otherwise intelligent sounding suggestions that achieved nothing the nice folks at Technet said the only solution was to low level format my hard disk then reinstall my signature. Sadly, this still didn't fix the issue!
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"have to" sounds clumsy relative to "must"; while when "must" is too strong, "should" seems to work.
Or "need" to (in case of doctor's wishes).
"have to" related to work conveys annoyance. "Our standard is …".
"Having something (in your hand)" versus "having something (to do)". The word is just clumsy by itself.
It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it.
― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food
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It gets worse in case you use this with "not"
It does not solve my Problem, but it answers my question
modified 19-Jan-21 21:04pm.
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The interesting thing with 'not' is that in case of 'must', 'not' does not apply to 'must', but the thing it is referring to. E. g. in 'You must not do' the 'not' applies to 'do', not 'must'
Whereas in case of 'have to', using 'not' results in a logical negation of 'have to': 'You don't have to' means the same as 'Its not true that you have to'
Therefore you could say that in case you want to forbid something, you should always use 'must' and 'not', because 'have to' and 'not' doesn't express the same. Unless, of course, you choose to be precise on what to negate: 'You have to not do' would work syntactically and semantically. But I don't think I've ever seen or heard such a phrase in english.
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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In Norwegian, it depends on where you put the stress: You must not do it ("Du må ikke gjøre det") vs. You must not do it ("Du må ikke gjøre det") - I guess the difference in meaning is approximately the same in English as in Norwegian. In writing, highlighting with italics, underlining or boldface may, for a variety of reasons be undesirable, so you may be missing a way to indicate your intetion.
We have other cases similar to your example. You need not do it ("Du trenger ikke gjøre det") would never be considered a negation of "do it", but of "need" (so it behaves differently from "must"). Moving on to "can", you can have a whole series of meanings depending on the stress, and the "not" ("Du kan [ikke] gjøre det"):
You can climb that wall. (maybe the others can't)
You can climb that wall (if you just do your best)
You can climb that wall (wow! I didn't know that)
You can not climb that wall (you are not old enough)
You can not climb that wall (stop pretending that you can)
You can not climb that wall (I do not allow you to do it)
You can not climb that wall (that would be just crazy)
and so on. (Depending on context, the interpretation may be somewhat different.)
I have met immigrants who have learned to speak Norwegian almost completely free of accent, but they reveal themselves as non-native speakers by not mastering the meaning of all stress patterns, or by the word order: Two alternatives may both be valid, but with somewhat different meanings, often when "not" is involved: I am not planning to go to London, vs. I am planning not to go to London.
I heard Vera Henriksen, author of Viking age novels and prominent translator of old Norse litterature to modern Norwegian, talk about the problems of translating the poetry: The Norse language (like modern German) made use of seveal cases, i.e. inflected forms to indicate e.g. the role of an actor. We have got a few traces of it left: He hit him, or Him he hit. In the Norse poetry, you have great freedom in the word order, and the poetic rythm depends on it. But in a direct translation to modern Norwegian, the same word order is illegal, meaningless or has a different meaning. If you reorder it according to modern grammatical rules, the rythm is completely ruined. It takes a skilled author to do an honest translation, rather than to re-invent the text!
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Great example. But you shouldn't forget:
You can not climb that wall (maybe another one?)
At least, sometimes interpunctuation comes to the rescue when you need to resolve an ambiguity:
"Let's eat, grandpa" is fine, but
"Let's eat grandpa" is cannibalistic
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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