291600 - Replace "iff" with "if and only if"

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Bugzilla :: Bugzilla-General, defect, P3)

Description

[Vlad Dascalu]

"iff" should be "if" in globals.pl and Bugzilla/Config.pm.

Comment 1

[Vlad Dascalu]

Attachment: 2.18 and tip patch

Comment 2

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

That's common mathematical shorthand in the US for "if and only if", which is
probably what was intended here.  Maybe we should just spell it out?

Comment 3

[Vlad Dascalu]

Attachment: 2.16 patch

2.16 patch, in case it meets the 2.16 criterias (if it doesn't please move the
target to 2.18)

Comment 4

[Vlad Dascalu]

Attachment: patch for 2.16, version 2

Comment 5

[Vlad Dascalu]

Attachment: patch for 2.18 and tip, version 2

Comment 6

[Stephen Lee]

Comment #2 =~ s/in the US//
(at least it was taught to me in maths classes in the UK)

There is at least one other use of the term (in 2.16.x quicksearch.js):

// resolutions are added to resolution. Returns true iff some matches
// were found for at least one of the given prefixes.


Personally, I actually prefer reading 'iff' to 'if and only if', as it has the 
required logical precision without taking more space than it deserves (and also 
saves a tiny amount of mental effort figuring out the scope of the 'and').

Comment 7

[Frédéric Buclin]

Comment on attachment 181628 [details] [diff] [review]
patch for 2.16, version 2

Maybe is it obvious what 'iff' means when english is your mother language. But
I'm not sure you would understand what 'ssi' means in french, for example. So I
prefer the long wording too. Thanks Vlad for the patch. :)

This is not a security fix so it should not go in 2.16 IMO. But justdave will
deny approval if he does not want it.

Comment 8

[Frédéric Buclin]

Comment on attachment 181629 [details] [diff] [review]
patch for 2.18 and tip, version 2

r=LpSolit

Comment 9

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

yeah, I agree, 2.16 is on security status now, this isn't worth fixing there.

Comment 10

[Vlad Dascalu]

On 2.18 and trunk, "iff" also appears in quicksearch.js and
template/en/default/list/quips.html.tmpl, in addition to the place corrected by
the patch.

Comment 11

[Stephen Lee]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I'm not sure you would understand what 'ssi' means in french, for example.

I'd guess "si et seulement si"... and if so I think in certain contexts I would 
also prefer this abbreviation. However, these are source comments that need to 
be widely understood rather than concise logical statements (I failed to 
qualify my previous comment, making it sound more negative towards this change 
than I'd intended).

If I was a frenchman relying on automatic translation, let's see what I'd get:

"Quelques dossiers dans l'annuaire de données doivent être IFF lisible du monde 
que nous n'avons pas un groupe de webserver."
vs
"Quelques dossiers dans l'annuaire de données doivent être monde lisible si et 
seulement si nous n'avons pas un groupe de webserver."

enough said...


However, as mentioned in my comment 6 and Vlad's comment 10 there are other 
uses of the abbreviation in the codebase. These should ALL be changed.

Comment 12

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

ok, lets go ahead and fix this everywhere while we're on the topic.  It'd seem a
waste to have another bug for something this little :)  2.18 and trunk only

Comment 13

[Vlad Dascalu]

Attachment: 2.18 and trunk, all places

Comment 14

[Frédéric Buclin]

Comment on attachment 185500 [details] [diff] [review]
2.18 and trunk, all places

r=LpSolit

Comment 15

[Vlad Dascalu]

Checking in quicksearch.js;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/quicksearch.js,v  <--  quicksearch.js
new revision: 1.11.2.1; previous revision: 1.11
done
Checking in Bugzilla/Config.pm;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/Bugzilla/Config.pm,v  <--  Config.pm
new revision: 1.21.2.6; previous revision: 1.21.2.5
done
Checking in template/en/default/list/quips.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/list/quips.html.tmpl,v 
<--  quips.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.12.2.1; previous revision: 1.12
done

Checking in quicksearch.js;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/quicksearch.js,v  <--  quicksearch.js
new revision: 1.12; previous revision: 1.11
done
Checking in Bugzilla/Config.pm;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/Bugzilla/Config.pm,v  <--  Config.pm
new revision: 1.42; previous revision: 1.41
done
Checking in template/en/default/list/quips.html.tmpl;
/cvsroot/mozilla/webtools/bugzilla/template/en/default/list/quips.html.tmpl,v 
<--  quips.html.tmpl
new revision: 1.15; previous revision: 1.14
done