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| author | Sebastiano Tronto <sebastiano@tronto.net> | 2025-09-28 14:55:19 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Sebastiano Tronto <sebastiano@tronto.net> | 2025-09-28 14:55:19 +0200 |
| commit | 63d34b144553b7a5c683125588912bea075ef6a9 (patch) | |
| tree | 7e063cff5a7eee922f24e58b15f4fd0a1ec6e6a4 /src | |
| parent | abef2ef3771392e52e85714b1eea1de10851e5ef (diff) | |
| download | sebastiano.tronto.net-63d34b144553b7a5c683125588912bea075ef6a9.tar.gz sebastiano.tronto.net-63d34b144553b7a5c683125588912bea075ef6a9.zip | |
fix grammar
Diffstat (limited to 'src')
| -rw-r--r-- | src/blog/2025-09-28-alphabetic-order/alphabetic-order.md | 16 |
1 files changed, 8 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/src/blog/2025-09-28-alphabetic-order/alphabetic-order.md b/src/blog/2025-09-28-alphabetic-order/alphabetic-order.md index 262a0d8..17ab685 100644 --- a/src/blog/2025-09-28-alphabetic-order/alphabetic-order.md +++ b/src/blog/2025-09-28-alphabetic-order/alphabetic-order.md | |||
| @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@ | |||
| 1 | # When I say "alphabetic order", I mean "alphabetic order" | 1 | # When I say "alphabetical order", I mean "alphabetical order" |
| 2 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Last month I have been on a multi-day hike with my dad. Each of us took | 3 | Last month I have been on a multi-day hike with my dad. Each of us took |
| 4 | many pictures, and when we came back we put them all in a shared folder. | 4 | many pictures, and when we came back we put them all in a shared folder. |
| 5 | We both have Android phones, and the naming scheme used for our pictures | 5 | We both have Android phones, and the naming scheme used for our pictures |
| 6 | was the same: `IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHmmss` followed maybe by some other numbers | 6 | was the same: `IMG_YYYYMMDD_HHmmss` followed maybe by some other numbers |
| 7 | and then a `.jpg`. Here `YYYY` stands for the year, `MM` for month and | 7 | and then a `.jpg`. Here `YYYY` stands for the year, `MM` for month and |
| 8 | so on, so that sorting the pictures in alphabetic order is the same as | 8 | so on, so that sorting the pictures in alphabetical order is the same as |
| 9 | sorting them by date. | 9 | sorting them by date. |
| 10 | 10 | ||
| 11 | Or so I thought. Strangely, when I looked at the files from my dad's | 11 | Or so I thought. Strangely, when I looked at the files from my dad's |
| @@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Indeed, KDE's Dolphin file manager does the same thing: | |||
| 32 |  | 32 |  |
| 33 | 33 | ||
| 34 | I'll spare you the screenshots, but Gnome and both the file managers | 34 | I'll spare you the screenshots, but Gnome and both the file managers |
| 35 | that I have on my phone also get the alphabetic order wrong. | 35 | that I have on my phone also get the alphabetical order wrong. |
| 36 | 36 | ||
| 37 | At this point I thought that maybe one of the two phones is using some | 37 | At this point I thought that maybe one of the two phones is using some |
| 38 | weird alternative unicode character instead of the underscore `_`. Really, | 38 | weird alternative unicode character instead of the underscore `_`. Really, |
| @@ -60,17 +60,17 @@ other hand, this makes it harder to debug what the fuck is going on with | |||
| 60 | all the other file managers. | 60 | all the other file managers. |
| 61 | 61 | ||
| 62 | It took me more than a month to figure this one out. Tell me, which | 62 | It took me more than a month to figure this one out. Tell me, which |
| 63 | file do you think comes first in alphabetic order, `file-9.txt` or | 63 | file do you think comes first in alphabetical order, `file-9.txt` or |
| 64 | `file-10.txt`? | 64 | `file-10.txt`? |
| 65 | 65 | ||
| 66 | Of course, the user who named those files probably wants `file-9.txt` to | 66 | Of course, the user who named those files probably wants `file-9.txt` to |
| 67 | come before `file-10.txt`. But `1` is smaller than `9`, so `file-10.txt` | 67 | come before `file-10.txt`. But `1` is smaller than `9`, so `file-10.txt` |
| 68 | should be first in alphabetic order. Everyone understands that, and | 68 | should be first in alphabetical order. Everyone understands that, and |
| 69 | soon people learn to put enough leading zeros if they want their files | 69 | soon people learn to put enough leading zeros if they want their files |
| 70 | to stay sorted the way they like. | 70 | to stay sorted the way they like. |
| 71 | 71 | ||
| 72 | Well, apparently all these operating systems have decided that no, | 72 | Well, apparently all these operating systems have decided that no, |
| 73 | users are too dumb and they cannot possibly understand what alphabetic | 73 | users are too dumb and they cannot possibly understand what alphabetical |
| 74 | order means. So when you ask them to sort your files alphabetically, | 74 | order means. So when you ask them to sort your files alphabetically, |
| 75 | they don't. Instead, they decide that if some piece of the file name is | 75 | they don't. Instead, they decide that if some piece of the file name is |
| 76 | a number, the real numerical value must be used. | 76 | a number, the real numerical value must be used. |
| @@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ a number, the real numerical value must be used. | |||
| 78 | I don't know when this became the norm, to be honest I have not used a | 78 | I don't know when this became the norm, to be honest I have not used a |
| 79 | normal graphical file manager in a long time. | 79 | normal graphical file manager in a long time. |
| 80 | 80 | ||
| 81 | *I know you asked for the files to be sorted in alphabetic order, | 81 | *I know you asked for the files to be sorted in alphabetical order, |
| 82 | but you don't want `file-10.txt` to come before `file-9.txt`, do | 82 | but you don't want `file-10.txt` to come before `file-9.txt`, do |
| 83 | you? No, I know you don't. I am not even going to ask you, your | 83 | you? No, I know you don't. I am not even going to ask you, your |
| 84 | mushy human brain is too small to comprehend the intricacies of | 84 | mushy human brain is too small to comprehend the intricacies of |
| @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ name right after the seconds, while mine added an extra underscore to | |||
| 89 | separate them from the seconds. Which in my mind it should not have | 89 | separate them from the seconds. Which in my mind it should not have |
| 90 | mattered, because alphabetically they should still have been sorted | 90 | mattered, because alphabetically they should still have been sorted |
| 91 | correctly to the second. But with this "modern" interpretation of the | 91 | correctly to the second. But with this "modern" interpretation of the |
| 92 | alphabetic order, the files without the extra separator in the name had | 92 | alphabetical order, the files without the extra separator in the name had |
| 93 | a much higher number, so they come last. | 93 | a much higher number, so they come last. |
| 94 | 94 | ||
| 95 | Now that I know what the issue is, I can solve it by renaming the files | 95 | Now that I know what the issue is, I can solve it by renaming the files |
