iterating over lines in a file

[Donn Cave]

Quoth nobody <no at bo.dy>:
| Moshe Zadka <moshez at math.huji.ac.il>, in
| <Pine.GSO.4.10.10007200934550.23388-100000 at sundial>:
|
| [...]
|> Preventing world war III, when Python achieves world domination. If C is
|> allowed to achieve world domination, WWIII will be cause by
|
|> if(everything_is_ok = 0) {
|> 	launch_missile();
|> }
|
| i sort of see the point, when you're speaking of beginner programmers
| still confused by the common algebra equal sign and trying hard to
| sort out assignment from comparison, but i honestly don't see many
| more seasoned programmers making that mistake. maybe i'm just weird
| that way. (then again, i keep wondering why native speakers of the
| english language misplace the apostrophe. i never make that class of
| mistakes either, my brain just isn't prone to it. maybe it's the
| learning two other languages before english that inoculated me
| somehow... both my other ones deal with that sort of grammar very
| differently, so maybe i just don't see the apostrophe as something
| confusing because of that. who knows.)

For what it's worth, apostrophe errors stand out like a sore thumb
for me, but I have made many =/== mistakes.  Even a few in Python,
believe it or not.

	Donn Cave, donn at u.washington.edu
PS.

It's a source of constant amazement to me how well some of you
non-native speakers can manage, but I suppose if my Portuguese
got as much practice it would be pretty good too.  For the rest
of us native speakers who are wondering what's all this about
apostrophes -- it's really simple!

90% of it is "it's" vs. "its", and when there's time to think
about it we can easily solve this puzzle by analogy:  just
change "it" to "he", and consider whether we would write "he's"
or "his".  We have the same apostrophe here, and likewise in
"they're", "that's" and so forth: a contraction of two words.

The source of the confusion is a possessive "s" ending that
does take an apostrophe, e.g., "pig's eye".  But "its" is
not "it" + that ending.  "Its" is a natural pronoun like "their".

Now I suppose we will have no more of this foolishness!  And
while we're improving our English - remember, "loose/loosed"
vs. "lose/lost".