23
What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
300 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 17 points 2 years ago (31 children)

If it were supposed to be pronounced "jif" it would have been spelled that way, I don't give two fucks what Stephen Wilhite said about it either.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 31 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    Same with Gnome wanting to be pronounced "Gah-nome", or Latex "Latech". Just spell stuff the way you want it to be pronounced, or accept that people pronounce it another way

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

    or Latex “Latech”. Just spell stuff the way you want it to be pronounced

    But they did! You're the one who fucked it up by using an "x" (Latin letter x) instead of a "χ" (Greek letter chi).

    (Also, you didn't capitalize or format it correctly. It's supposed to be rendered as "L^A^ΤΕΧ", and yes, those last three letters are Τ Ε Χ Greek capital tau, epsilon, chi.)

    🤓

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Lol, the only way to be more obtuse would be to say "our project name has no approved transliteration or Unicode string... Render this svg inline or don't talk about us."

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    New hill: All brand names must be composed entirely of pronounceable characters from languages in actual use today

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Gnome is spelt the way they want it to be said. Are you suggesting that gnome should be pronounced ‘nome’ like the garden ornament with a silent g.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (11 children)

    Agreed. I think since the “G” stands for “graphics” it should be pronounced like the G in graphics.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 11 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (9 children)

    But why? We don't pronounce any other acronyms like that, so why treat GIF different? The U in SCUBA isn't pronounced like it is in Underwater. The first A in CAPTCHA isn't pronounced the same as in Automated and the CH isn't split up to be pronounced like Computer and Human. The second A in NASA isn't pronounced like in Administration and the I in PIN doesn't get pronounced like Identification.

    We read acronyms as their own words, not as a collection of the first sounds of each constituent word.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Tbf, you're pointing out the vowels which make the sounds needed to pronounce the acronym as a word. But I get it, either way, we're pronouncing the word as a standalone word.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    🤷 just cause?

    Also, “gift”

    Have any examples where the first letter of the acronym isn’t pronounced the same? (I’m sure there are some)

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    UFO, not that that’s a super relevant question if we’re already admitting that our opinions are “just cause.” I think at that point the better question is “if just cause, why is there such a split in opinions?”

    I think the reason GIF is so contentious is that if we can there’s a tendency to make acronyms sound like words if possible. FUBAR and SCUBA are pronounced the way they are because we’re trained from words like tuba to see the UBA and use a long U. Something like “oofo” (or “uh-fo” as you would likely argue) for UFO sounds like half a word, hence pronouncing the letters individually. The thing about GIF is that both pronunciations sound like a word, and so both feel valid enough that there can be a split in opinions. Any arguments one way or the other is just trying to justify a gut feeling about which way is “proper.”

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    To be fair, UFO is an initialism, not an acronym. But at the same time, if it was, I think it'd still be an example, because we'd likely pronounce the U like "oo" (as in "boo"), lol

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    If it were meant to be pronounced 'giff' as in 'goober', it would have been spelled that way. You decide to turn an initialism into an acronym, you get what you get.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    It always WAS an acronym. That's the entire point of the argument. "G"raphics "I"nterchange "F"ormat.

    Nobody turned it into an acryonym, it just IS an acronym. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. The reason it's pronounced with a hard G is because Graphics is a hard G.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent