From: Mauricio Fernandez <mfp@...>
Date: 2007-11-02T20:13:12+09:00
Subject: Re: JRuby performance questions answered

On Fri, Nov 02, 2007 at 09:35:44AM +0900, Charles Oliver Nutter wrote:
> William James wrote:
> >On Oct 31, 11:24 pm, Charles Oliver Nutter <charles.nut...@sun.com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>Neither JRuby nor XRuby nor IronRuby nor Ruby.NET will support
> >
> >"Neither ... nor ..." is for two alternatives.  Perhaps this will
> >suffice.
> >
> >None of JRuby or XRuby or IronRuby or Ruby.NET will support
> 
> Perhaps
> 
> JRuby, XRuby, IronRuby, Ruby.NET; none of them will support
> 
> Too poetic?

The original polysyndeton conveyed the intended meaning effectively IMO.  
How thin is the line between a deliberate figure of speech and a grammatical
accident!

This doesn't sound too bad to me, but I'm no native speaker:
"Neither JRuby nor XRuby, IronRuby or Ruby.NET will ..."

"Or" must bind more tightly than "nor" there in order for the corresponding
logical proposition to be correct:

  AND(NOT(JRuby), NOT(OR(XRuby, IronRuby, Ruby.NET)))

"None of JRuby, XRuby, IronRuby or Ruby.NET will ..." and
"As for JRuby, XRuby, IronRuby and Ruby.NET, none [of them] will ..."
seem OK too.

-- 
Mauricio Fernandez  -   http://eigenclass.org