A micro-talk about pedantry
by Nate Abele (@nateabele).

• Depreciation
• noun
- a reduction in the value of an asset with
the passage of time, due in particular to
wear and tear.
- decrease in the value of a currency
relative to other currencies : depreciation
leads to losses for nondollar-based investors |
a currency depreciation.

• Deprecation
• noun
- to express earnest disapproval of.
- to urge reasons against; protest against
(a scheme, purpose, etc.).
- Archaic: to pray for deliverance from.

• Tenant
• noun
a person who occupies land or property
rented from a landlord.

• Tenet
• noun
a principle or belief, esp. one of the main
principles of a religion or philosophy : the
tenets of classical liberalism.

“Don’t reinvent the f**king wheel;
Use SPL (I’m looking at you, people
who write directory iterators).”
- Elizabeth Marie Smith

“For all intensive purposes”
• Srsly, WTF?
• Do your purposes concentrate on a single
subject?
• Are your purposes compressed into a
short amount of time??
• Are you trying to give your purposes a lot
of force or emphasis?!?

‘Intents’, it’s f**king ‘intents’
•Intents
• And
• Purposes
like camping!

F**king enunciate!
i.e. “say or pronounce clearly”

• Alternate
• verb
occur in turn repeatedly
• like zebra-striping table rows

• Alternative
• adjective
occur in turn repeatedly
• Synonymous with the other alternate
(confusing!)
• But not that confusing, so f**king get it
right!
• For example, an alternate route.

While we’re on the topic of routes...

It’s route, not root.
I don’t care if you’re Canadian.

Roots are the things at the
bottoms of trees, and at
the top of your directory
structure.

Corollary: unlike root, a rut
is what you get stuck in.

• Accept
• verb
consent to receive (a thing offered) : he
accepted a pen as a present.

• Except
• preposition
not including; other than : naked except for
my socks | they work every day except
Sunday.

Perl

Need I f**king say more?

• Morale
• noun
the confidence, enthusiasm, and discipline
of a person or group at a particular
time : their morale was high.

• Moral
• adjective
concerned with the principles of right
and wrong behavior and the goodness or
badness of human character

• Principle
• noun
a fundamental truth or proposition that
serves as the foundation for a system of
belief or behavior or for a chain of
reasoning : the basic principles of
Christianity.

• Principal
• adjective
first in order of importance; main : the
country's principal cities.

“Ajax is not s**t moving around on the screen.
S**t moving around on the screen is DHTML.”
- Ed Finkler

Irregardless

‘Irregardless’ is not a f**king word!

See the red dots/squiggles that
appear under it when you type?
That’s not for no reason.

Maybe you’re thinking of
‘irrespective’?

“Go thou and sin no more.” *
- Jesus
* Approximate translation from the original Aramaic.