Mail Archives: cygwin/2009/11/13/00:12:53
Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
> On 11/12/2009 06:47 PM, Dave Korn wrote:
>> Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
>>> On 11/12/2009 09:14 AM, Dexter_Michael AT emc wrote:
>>>> Should my ID output be the same as when I log into a unix server
>>>> here, or would it be different? My cygwin is running on a Windows
>>>> workstation so maybe it is grabbing my AD groups as opposed to my NIS
>>>> groups.
>>>
>>> The former. Cygwin operates on Windows to create a POSIXy environment
>>> on Windows. It's not a Linux/UNIX VM running on Windows.
>>
>> ITYM "the latter". Grabbing the AD groups is exactly what is going on.
>> (I'm inferring that Mike is in a heterogeneous environment with
>> essentially separate user accounts on the Unix and Windows sides, based
>> on YP/NIS and AD respectively.)
>
> Since we're in violent agreement about what was meant, I don't think it
> really matters however "former" refers to the first of two things
> mentioned. The "latter" refers to the second.
I know exactly what the terms mean, but I took your answer as being a reply
to the question:
>>>> Should my ID output be the same as when I log into a unix server
>>>> here, or would it be different?
rather than a response to the not-really-a-question-more-a-hypothesis:
>>>> My cygwin is running on a Windows
>>>> workstation so maybe it is grabbing my AD groups as opposed to my NIS
>>>> groups.
I think your usage is a bit peculiar here. Try each part on its own:
a)
>> Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
>>> On 11/12/2009 09:14 AM, Dexter_Michael AT emc wrote:
>>>> Should my ID output be the same as when I log into a unix server
>>>> here, or would it be different?
>>> The former.
Here, "the former" is factually wrong, it should be "the latter", but the
overall construct makes grammatical sense.
b)
>> Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
>>> On 11/12/2009 09:14 AM, Dexter_Michael AT emc wrote:
>>>> My cygwin is running on a Windows
>>>> workstation so maybe it is grabbing my AD groups as opposed to my NIS
>>>> groups.
>>>
>>> The former.
Here, it is indeed "the former" of the two things that is going on, but the
form of the response is grammatically odd in reply to a sentence that isn't an
explicit question. It needs a verb. "The former is occurring", or "Yes,
that's what is happening" would sound more natural. Or even just plain "Yes";
it's not asking "(A) or (B)?", so a response indicating A or indicating B
isn't right; it's asking "(A and not B)?", to which a yes/no response seems
appropriate.
I thought you were doing a) rather than b), so misguidedly corrected that
error, only because it was (under that reading) factually incorrect (the
correct response being "the latter - your ID output would be different"); I
wouldn't have bothered to pick nits with your grammar for its own sake but the
unusual formation misled me about the meaning of the sentence.
Heh. Total communication breakdown. I corrected what I thought was one
error instead of a second one, then you thought I had misunderstood a third
thing rather than a fourth!
cheers,
DaveK
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