Bug#210879: constitution.txt: fractured developers

["John H. Robinson, IV" <jaqque@debian.org>]

Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 28, 2003 at 03:21:46PM -0400, Alfie Costa wrote:
> > 
> > Integer has more than one meaning
> 
> Only if you're an idiot. Integer has precisely one meaning, and it is
> a synonym of "whole number". The set of integers is the union of the
> set of natural numbers and the set composed by subtracting every
> natural number from zero.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WholeNumber.html
has some interesting things to say about whole numbers vs natural
numbers vs th respect to integers, and provides references.

and, ``integer'' like any _english_ (or american, take your pick) word,
can have multiple meanings. sometimes with respect to technical usage,
sometimes with respect to local convention.

in order to communicate, we need to ensure that our symbols carry the
same message in each recipient. oft-times, we allow dictionaries to
define the scope of our symbols. as we can see, dictionaries are like
standards: there are so many to choose from (apologies to David J.
Alsberg)

-john