The Lions book (more nitpicking)

Posted Aug 19, 2003 17:05 UTC (Tue) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054)
Parent article: Why SCO won't show the code

The title of the Lions book is actually "Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code", and the author is John Lions.

The "6th Edition" part is part of the title (actually part of the name of "UNIX 6th Edition"), and refers to the version of Unix it covers. It is not the 6th edition of the book, as Amazon and others seem to think. (The "with Source Code" part is the subtitle.)

Also, it's Lions', not Lion's, since the author's name is John Lions rather than John Lion.

The Lions book (more nitpicking)

Posted Aug 19, 2003 18:15 UTC (Tue) by ikegami (guest, #14174) [Link] (2 responses)

: Also, it's Lions', not Lion's, since the author's name is John Lions rather than John Lion.

If you're gonna nitpick on spelling, get it right! The possessive form of "Lions" is "Lions's" because it's singular.

(singular) pro, James, Lions
(plural) pros, Jameses, Lionses
(possessive singular) pro's, James's, Lions's
(possessive plural) pros', Jameses', Lionses'

The Lions book (more nitpicking)

Posted Aug 19, 2003 18:27 UTC (Tue) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link] (1 responses)

If you're gonna nitpick on spelling, get it right!

I did. I gave the title of the book as it is on the cover, not what some manual on English says it should be. Then I explained why it's that way on the cover.

The possessive form of "Lions" is "Lions's" because it's singular.

That's a matter of some debate. For example:
http://www.meredith.edu/grammar/plural.htm#Possessive
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxwheret.html

It's a living human language, therefore there are inconsistencies and uncertainties. Deal with it. The title of this book, however, is not uncertain.

The Lions book (more nitpicking)

Posted Aug 20, 2003 8:19 UTC (Wed) by rjamestaylor (guest, #339) [Link]

ikegami, I'd give it up. He's likely to bring in his partner Wagnall to buttress his arguments. Then you'd really be toast.

;)

The Lions book

Posted Aug 19, 2003 23:47 UTC (Tue) by nicku (guest, #777) [Link]

John Lions taught me operating systems at The University of New South Wales. Sadly he's dead now, though the overseas students who suffered under his criticism of their standard of English may not regret so strongly.

I have the two books from the class, which I treasure; one is A commentary on the UNIX Operating System, fourth printing, the other is UNIX Operating System Source Code Level Six. There, on Sheet 25 is the code that matches the slide.

They are printed on the big old Computer Centre line printers in fixed width font on A4 paper, landscape orientation, bound in yellow (the commentary) and red (the code). The commentary is printed justified in three columns, the code in two.