Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH v3 5/7] tools/fuzz: introduce x86 instruction emulator target

[Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wei Liu writes ("Re: [PATCH v3 5/7] tools/fuzz: introduce x86 instruction 
emulator target"):
> On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 04:30:30AM -0700, Jan Beulich wrote:
>>> On 12.12.16 at 12:19, <wei.liu2@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > I mean "states". There are three states we need to reset.
> > 
> > Hmm, to me as a non-native speaker it feels wrong to use plural
> > here (just like for e.g. milk), but maybe I'm wrong.
> 
> "State" is countable when used to represent the condition of
> somebody/something.  Various other meanings of "state" don't apply here.

I think "three states" can only be used to mean three alternative
possible values of the same variable.  It cannot be used to mean three
separate variables.

So "a state" is one of the possible values.  You can also say
something like "the system is in a broken state", but again, this
refers to a specific state amongst all the possible different states.

"Reset all states" is really odd and could almost never be right.

Ian.

_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.xen.org/xen-devel