`over'

[Bill Hogan bhogan@bedlam.rahul.net]

"f" == forsyth  <forsyth@plan9.cs.york.ac.uk> writes:

  >>> it is only with the benefit of hindsight and considerable effort
  >>> (forgetting such things as "hop over", "skip over", "jump over", "pass
  >>> over", etc.) that I can discern in the phrase "Plan 9 will install
  >>> over the second through last partitions" The idea that Plan 9 will
  >>> *DESTROY* my second through the last partitions -- so when it goes on
  >>> to say

  f> oh god.

  f> really, i have a lot of sympathy for you esp. owing to the
problem with disk/prep; i'm very sorry about any loss, and so on; i
can tell you what plan 9 has, can, and might do to your discs; BUT i
really cannot agree that the Errata notes about installation are not
quite clear in the common dialects of English about the effect of
using the old disk/prep on a DOS disc with several DOS partitions.

  f> no, i'm not having any of this.

  f> let's see. (Compact Edition of the full Oxford English
Dictionary; none of this CDROM stuff.)

  f> i believe `over' is intended in the following sense:

  f> II. In sense `on', `upon'

  f> 5. On the upper or outer surface of; upon: sometimes implying the
notion of supported or resting upon, sometimes (now more frequently)
that of covering the surface.
  
  f> 6. To a position on the surface or top of, or so as to cover;
upon (with verbs of motion).

  f> 7. a. (Position) on all parts of the surface of; everywhere on;
here and there upon.
  
  f> Often strengthened by `all', now esp. `all over'.

  f> b. (Motion) from place to place on the surface of; all about;
throughout.  Often `all over'.

  f> c. Through every part of, all through.  (Sometimes including the
notion of examination or consideration: cf. 4.)


   [and so on in a similar vein -- the OED is always fun to read]

   
   First off, I am not the person whose hard drive partitions were
installed (all?) over by the plan9 demo.

   But as I said, while it is possible to construe the phrase "install
over the second through last partitions" in a manner parallel to the
sense in which most speakers of English will I am sure immediately
understand the phrase "paint over the second through last letters", I
seriously doubt that possibility is the one which will occur *first*
in the minds of most speakers of English, and that IMO makes it much
more likely than it needs to be in this case that a key point will be
missed even if every first-time plan9 installer reads `errata.html'.

   I think you have shown the OED supports my position.

   The point is that revisions which may spell the difference between
catastrophe and success do not belong in an erratum but should be
incorporated into a new edition of the text to which they apply.


    Bill