Jim Murphy wrote: > Martin: > > You wrote: > > "That's not the issue. Had pymath.o been linked into python, it's > symbols would have been exported (is that proper use of English > tenses?)" > It does, however, make the common mistake of putting an apostrophe in a possessive personal pronoun.
> Yes, it's a proper and idiomatic use of the subjunctive mood, which > many native (American) English speakers manage to mangle. > > I also noticed you wrote the following a few emails later on the > python-dev list: > > "Using that would require to split pymath.c into multiple files." > > My ear tells me that either "that would require splitting pymath,c ..." > or "that would require one to split pymat.c ..." is much more grammatical > than "that would require to split ...," but I can't cite a rule. It is > frequently > acceptable to use either the infinitive or the gerund form of a verb, > which > would imply that "to split" should be interchangeable with "splitting," but > I believe that some verbs have preferences for one form over the other. > > My ear seems to be thinking of the template "require someone to do > something," and rebels at hearing the "to" without a "someone." That's > the best excuse for a rule I could come up with. > > I actually spent a half-hour trying to find rules on the uses in English of > infinitives versus gerunds and did not find anything definitive. I realize > now, to my disgust, that English usage is very badly afflicted with > "special casing." > This is only significant because Martin is a perfectionist who wants to write better English. I can't remember a time when his slightly-less-than-perfect command of the language rendered anything he wrote incomprehensible. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
