Re: [Nmh-workers] message rewrite/fix up

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Joel,

> Thus spake address@hidden:
> > > That was a copy and paste from one of the four other man pages
> > > that has "thru".  I'll change them all to "to", though my American
> > > English upbringing might suggest "through".
> > 
> > My Pedantic English upbringing points out that "this to that" isn't
> > clear about whether the endpoints are included, but "this through
> > that" includes the endpoints.  (Mathematicians, the ultimate
> > pendants, refer to the distinction as open or closed intervals).
> 
> Speaking as a logician (and logicians are the mathematician's
> pedants), "this to that" is a half-open interval. :)

I think it's being tainted by maths that's causes the doubt, at least
for me.  In English, `Monday to Friday' and `closed 13th to 15th' have
accepted meanings by the populous.  `inclusive' can be added for stress,
as that link I gave earlier states, but isn't normally required.

Once http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_%28mathematics%29 rears its
head we question the English but the hoi polloi don't.  Note, [a, b] is
inclusive at both ends, it's [a, b) that excludes b, so the `default'
notation of matching brackets is also inclusive.  :-)

Cheers, Ralph.