abt pointers in c

[Vladimir Oka]

Keith Thompson opined:

(e-mail address removed) wrote: [...]

This forum would be immensely more helpful for you if you got some
sort of start on the program and were stuck

This is not a forum. This is a Usenet newsgroup. There's a world of
difference.

"Forum" is a generic term. A Usenet newsgroup is one of many kinds
of forum.

Fora.

--
LILO, you've got me on my knees!
(from David Black, (e-mail address removed), with apologies to Derek and
the Dominos, and Werner Almsberger)

<http://clc-wiki.net/wiki/Introduction_to_comp.lang.c>

 

[Ben C]

Keith Thompson opined:

[...]
"Forum" is a generic term. A Usenet newsgroup is one of many kinds
of forum.

Fora.

No, "forum" was correct. c.f. "a ship is a kind of boat, one of many
kinds of boat".

Many "kinds" but only one "base-class".

 

[Vladimir Oka]

Keith Thompson opined:

[...]
"Forum" is a generic term. A Usenet newsgroup is one of many kinds
of forum.

Fora.

No, "forum" was correct. c.f. "a ship is a kind of boat, one of many
kinds of boat".

Many "kinds" but only one "base-class".

Being a non-native speaker, I can't really argue with this.

However, FWIW, a quick poll of native UK speakers, and a quick search
on Google reveal that there's around 50-50 split between the two
usages. The plural form seems to be favoured for countable nouns (if
that's the correct label), and the singular for concepts.

Probably tells more about how grammar is (not) taught in English
speaking schools these days. In my day, and in my native language, we
used to study grammar for the last four years of primary school, for
around 3 hours a week (I still have an occasional nightmare about noun
cases).

BTW, in my native language it *has* to be plural in this context. Hence
the bias, I guess.

Anyway, it's not important, and I didn't mean to be mean to Keith.
Thanks for the explanation as well.