2001-04-30 01:11:17

by Andres Salomon

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: deregister?

I'm kind of curious; "deregister" is used quite often in the kernel:

pcmcia_deregister_client
pcmcia_deregister_erase_queue
misc_deregister
atm_dev_deregister
atm_proc_dev_deregister
usb_deregister_bus
usb_deregister
usb_serial_deregister
scsi_deregister_blocked_host
matroxfb_dh_deregisterfb

Not to mention in various comments and documentation. Deregister,
according to http://www.m-w.com (and many other dictionaries), is not a word.
Is there some sort of historical significance to this being used, in
place of "unregister"?


--
"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited
by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when
you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new
turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily
removed the floor under your bed." - Unix for Dummies, 2nd Edition
-- found in the .sig of Rob Riggs, [email protected]


2001-04-30 01:28:45

by Gregory Maxwell

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 09:10:49PM -0400, Andres Salomon wrote:
[snip]
> Not to mention in various comments and documentation. Deregister,
> according to http://www.m-w.com (and many other dictionaries), is not a word.
> Is there some sort of historical significance to this being used, in
> place of "unregister"?

I purpose that we fix this horrible spelling error right away and get it
into 2.4.5! :)

(up yours binary-only module authors! :) )

2001-04-30 01:49:28

by Rik van Riel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

On Sun, 29 Apr 2001, Andres Salomon wrote:

> Not to mention in various comments and documentation. Deregister,
> according to http://www.m-w.com (and many other dictionaries), is not a word.
> Is there some sort of historical significance to this being used, in
> place of "unregister"?

Yes, we're all anti-american terrorists who plan to make the
US economy collapse by inventing lots of new words which will
have to be added to the dictionary, making the US economy
unable to support the ever-growing dictionaries and ensuring
the Americans will be unable to (learn to) spell, leaving them
dead in the water if there's ever a linguistic war between
them and the UK.

Cunning, isn't it?

cheers,

Rik
--
Virtual memory is like a game you can't win;
However, without VM there's truly nothing to lose...

http://www.surriel.com/ http://distro.conectiva.com/

Send all your spam to [email protected] (spam digging piggy)

2001-04-30 02:04:10

by Andres Salomon

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 10:27:29PM -0300, Rik van Riel wrote:
>
> On Sun, 29 Apr 2001, Andres Salomon wrote:
>
> > Not to mention in various comments and documentation. Deregister,
> > according to http://www.m-w.com (and many other dictionaries), is not a word.
> > Is there some sort of historical significance to this being used, in
> > place of "unregister"?
>
> Yes, we're all anti-american terrorists who plan to make the
> US economy collapse by inventing lots of new words which will
> have to be added to the dictionary, making the US economy
> unable to support the ever-growing dictionaries and ensuring
> the Americans will be unable to (learn to) spell, leaving them

Americans can spell? Since when?

> dead in the water if there's ever a linguistic war between
> them and the UK.
>
> Cunning, isn't it?
>
> cheers,
>
> Rik
> --
> Virtual memory is like a game you can't win;
> However, without VM there's truly nothing to lose...
>
> http://www.surriel.com/ http://distro.conectiva.com/
>
> Send all your spam to [email protected] (spam digging piggy)
>
>

Well, at least you provided a reason. ;P That would be incredibly lame
if the answer turned out to be, "The original author made a mistake,
and no one cared enough to fix it. API users (who are constantly
mixing up unregister and deregister) be damned."

--
"... being a Linux user is sort of like living in a house inhabited
by a large family of carpenters and architects. Every morning when
you wake up, the house is a little different. Maybe there is a new
turret, or some walls have moved. Or perhaps someone has temporarily
removed the floor under your bed." - Unix for Dummies, 2nd Edition
-- found in the .sig of Rob Riggs, [email protected]

2001-04-30 03:40:46

by Paul Fulghum

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

Andres Salomon wrote:

> I'm kind of curious; "deregister" is used quite often in the kernel:
>
> pcmcia_deregister_client
...

> matroxfb_dh_deregisterfb
>
> Not to mention in various comments and documentation. Deregister,
> according to http://www.m-w.com (and many other dictionaries), is not a word.
> Is there some sort of historical significance to this being used, in
> place of "unregister"?

Linux kernel source vs. the English language.
One of them will have to bend...
let's get ready to rumble!

Now that it has been pointed out it will mildly
irritate people (myself included) until it
*is* corrected (I guess ignorance was bliss :-)

Paul Fulghum
[email protected]



2001-04-30 05:39:54

by Steve VanDevender

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

Jonathan Lundell writes:
> At 10:03 PM -0400 2001-04-29, Andres Salomon wrote:
> >Americans can spell? Since when?
>
> OED 2nd Ed:
>
> deregister. v. trans. To remove from a register. Hence
> deregistration. (first citation 1925)
>
> unregistered. ppl. a. Not entered in a register; unrecorded. (first
> citation 1604)
>
> The OED has no entry for "unregister".

That's proving that the British can spell (it's the Oxford English
Dictionary, after all), and that Andreas Salomon doesn't know standard
English verb morphology. I rather suspect that there are quite a few
verbs prefixed with "de-" in common use that aren't in dictionaries,
since it's well understood how "de-" changes the meaning of a verb.

2001-04-30 05:24:09

by Jonathan Lundell

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

At 10:40 PM -0600 2001-04-29, Paul Fulghum wrote:
>Andres Salomon wrote:
>
>>I'm kind of curious; "deregister" is used quite often in the kernel:
>>
>>pcmcia_deregister_client
>...
>
>>matroxfb_dh_deregisterfb
>>
>>Not to mention in various comments and documentation. Deregister,
>>according to http://www.m-w.com (and many other dictionaries), is not a word.
>>Is there some sort of historical significance to this being used, in
>>place of "unregister"?
>
>Linux kernel source vs. the English language.
>One of them will have to bend...
>let's get ready to rumble!
>
>Now that it has been pointed out it will mildly
>irritate people (myself included) until it
>*is* corrected (I guess ignorance was bliss :-)

At 10:03 PM -0400 2001-04-29, Andres Salomon wrote:
>Americans can spell? Since when?

OED 2nd Ed:

deregister. v. trans. To remove from a register. Hence
deregistration. (first citation 1925)

unregistered. ppl. a. Not entered in a register; unrecorded. (first
citation 1604)

The OED has no entry for "unregister".


--
/Jonathan Lundell.

2001-04-30 06:04:18

by Jonathan Lundell

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: deregister?

At 10:39 PM -0700 2001-04-29, Steve VanDevender wrote:
>Jonathan Lundell writes:
> > At 10:03 PM -0400 2001-04-29, Andres Salomon wrote:
> > >Americans can spell? Since when?
> >

Shouldn't that be 'Sinse when'?

> > OED 2nd Ed:
> >
> > deregister. v. trans. To remove from a register. Hence
> > deregistration. (first citation 1925)
> >
> > unregistered. ppl. a. Not entered in a register; unrecorded. (first
> > citation 1604)
> >
> > The OED has no entry for "unregister".
>
>That's proving that the British can spell (it's the Oxford English
>Dictionary, after all),

Hmm. Just a *somewhat* circular argument!

>and that Andreas Salomon doesn't know standard
>English verb morphology. I rather suspect that there are quite a few
>verbs prefixed with "de-" in common use that aren't in dictionaries,
>since it's well understood how "de-" changes the meaning of a verb.


--
/Jonathan Lundell.