Re: [PATCH v1 1/7] auxdisplay: charlcd: Partially revert "Move hwidth and bwidth to struct hd44780_common"

[Andy Shevchenko]

On Mon, Mar 10, 2025 at 10:39:49AM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Mar 2025 at 09:12, Andy Shevchenko
> <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 08:05:56PM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > On Fri, 7 Mar 2025 at 19:57, Andy Shevchenko
> > > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 07:14:02PM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, 7 Mar 2025 at 17:57, Andy Shevchenko
> > > > > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > > > On Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 10:03:31AM +0100, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > > > > > > On Mon, 24 Feb 2025 at 18:30, Andy Shevchenko
> > > > > > > <andriy.shevchenko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > > > > > The commit 2545c1c948a6 ("auxdisplay: Move hwidth and bwidth to struct
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > s/The commit/Commit/
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Why? We know that we are talking about the very specific commit.
> > > > >
> > > > > You can have a noun with or without an article:
> > > >
> > > > This is not so simple :-), esp. if a noun is a weekday or a toponym.
> > > >
> > > > >   - "a commit": an unspecified commit,
> > > > >   - "the commit": a specific commit, specified by context.
> > > > >   - "commit 1234abcd": a specific commit, specified by what follows.
> > > > >
> > > > > > My English is not native I would appreciate a link to a material to study
> > > > > > the case you pointed out.
> > > > >
> > > > > Neither is mine, but the use of articles is similar in English and Dutch.
> > > > > (I am aware your mother tongue does not have articles ;-)
> > > > >
> > > > > I found plenty of articles explaining cases 1 and 2.
> > > > > Case 3 can be considered equivalent to "Mount Everest" in
> > > > > https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/a1-a2-grammar/articles-the-or-no-article
> > > >
> > > > Okay, so you actually think that the hash and the title can be considered as
> > > > "name of a place". Hmm... I don't think it applies here. It's not a place.
> > > > Moreover some places require "the" article.
> > >
> > > Only if they are a region, not if they are a country (yes, that's
> > > unrelated here).
> > >
> > > > Here https://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/articles.html,
> > > > for example, the sentence "The 2003 federal budget" sounds to me closer to
> > > > our case. Every year there is a federal budget, but we explicitly point out
> > > > to one and reader knows what is this. The same with the commit.
> > > >
> > > > Sorry, but I am still not convinced.
> > >
> > > In "The 2003 federal budget", both "2003" and "federal" are adjectives.
> > > In "commit 1234abcd", "1234abcd" is a name.
> > >
> > > Cfr. "King Charles".  "The King Charles" would be used only when
> > > putting a very special emphasis on "king".
> >
> > I have talked to the language teacher (okay, her native is not English),
> > and she told me that no article is for the cases of location, person, or
> > character. None of that category the commit falls into.
> >
> > So, still not convinced.
> 
> I have a hard time finding the official rule (git commits did not
> exist when English grammar was written ;-)... Examples are easier to
> find.  E.g. the first sentence on [1] does not start with an article:
> 
>    European route E40 is the longest European route.

Okay, seems AI may help here. It tells that grammatically article is needed,
but in technical texts (like this one) it's the usual case to drop it and
it's considered grammatically correct.

We both are right but from different angles. And yours seems the winner today
:)

I'll update the message accordingly.

> [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_route_E40

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko