Re: anyone want to work on bug # 1063?
Raul Miller writes ("Re: anyone want to work on bug # 1063?"):
> I thought this was a non-bug, as there are adequate references which
> support this use of the word 'alternate'. Shouldn't this bug just be
> marked as done?
Dictionaries merely describe usage, they don't say what is correct and
what is incorrect.
I shall check Fowler's (a style guide). I shall be very surprised if
anyone can produce a style guide that condones the use of `alternate'
to mean `alternative'.
I have to admit to being disappointed that the incorrect usage has
become so common that it has found its way into dictionaries; that
doesn't make it correct, though.
Richard Kettlewell writes ("symlinked config files and alternate/alternative"):
> As for ``alternate'': granted there are some references which claim it
> is OK. But it's certainly wrong this side of the pond, and I don't
> think the correction would make it wrong anywhere else.
Indeed.
Ian.
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