re: [PATCH] Fix breakage caused by spelling 'fix'

[Tomas Szepe]

> [[e-mail]]
> 
> > > This fixes a spelling "fix" that resulted in a compile error.
> > > With apologies to Russell King.
> > > diff -ur a/include/asm-arm/proc-fns.h b/include/asm-arm/proc-fns.h
> > > --- a/include/asm-arm/proc-fns.h	Tue Mar  4 19:29:20 2003
> > > +++ b/include/asm-arm/proc-fns.h	Thu Mar  6 11:46:15 2003
> > > @@ -125,7 +125,7 @@
> > >
> > >  #if 0
> > >   * The following is to fool mkdep into generating the correct
> > > - * dependencies.  Without this, it can't figure out that this
> > > + * dependencies.  Without this, it cant figure out that this
> > A spelling fix should be a right spelling fix ;)
> > 
> > So either "cannot" or "can not" but not "cant" :)
> 
> "Can not" is technically wrong.

While "can not" is not necessarily bad English, it's uncommon
and should probably be avoided, because its use might produce
sentences ambivalent in meaning.

<quote>
Can/could: modal auxiliary verbs --
...
h/	contracted negative forms are "can't" and "couldn't."
	Cannot is usually written as one word.
</quote>
Swan, Michael: Practical English Usage
Oxford University Press, Second Edition, 1995
p. 104, item 122

-- 
Tomas Szepe <[e-mail]>