[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [PATCH] more small directional cleanups

[Arien Malec <arien_malec@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Trent Piepho <xyzzy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Aug 2001, Arien Malec wrote:
> > > It is normalized.  He is killed.         BAD!
> > > It was normalized.  He was killed.       OK
> > > It is normal.   He is dead.              BETTER
> > 
> > Bad analogy.:
> > 
> > He is shot, he is hurt, he is maimed: OK
> 
> No they're not ok.  He is shot sounds very crude, as you are using shot as an
> adjective.  Would you say, "I am shot."

I'd say "I'm shot" but that might just be the USAian in me :-) I can imagine a
nurse doing triage saing "He is shot, she is stabbed", but again, English usage
varies. American English especially admits fluid boundaries between verbal
forms, nouns and adjectives.

When it comes down to the normalized vs. normal issue,  I agree that is_normal
is a better predicate than is_normalized because it applies equally well to a
position that is and always has been normal, vs. a position that has been
transformed to make it normal. (Especially if we are doing the transformation
only in a few places, and everything else is presumed to be dealing with normal
tiles).

> Which of these sound better?
> 
> When you normalize a vector you make is normal.
> When you normalize a vector you make it normalized.

Both of them are tautologies, but the second is more of a tautology than the
first.
 
> Or use normalize in another sense, "to make conform to a standard or norm":
> 
>  I was a strange person, but now I'm normal.
>  I was a strange person, but now I'm normalized. (*)

In the first, I've accepted being normal, in the second, I've been forced to
conform :-)

Arien

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