Christian Sternagel writes:

recently I was wondering about the two words "order" and "ordering"

I would use "ordering" to mean the relation or function that orders (ranks) elements, and I'd use "order" to refer the actual progression. So by applying an ordering, you get elements in a particular order. My dictionary lists them as synonyms for this, but "order" has the unfortunate potential to be confused with the verb, and generally seems to have more possible meanings than "ordering".

I'm not a native English speaker

Me neither. :-) -k -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:02:20 +0200, you wrote:

I'm not a native English speaker and recently I was wondering about the two words "order" and "ordering" (the main reason why I write this to the Haskell mailing list, is that the type class "Ordering" does exist).

My dictionaries tell me that "order" (besides other meanings) denotes an ordered structure on elements and "ordering" (as only meaning) denotes some request that I made at some entity. So, to me it seems that calling the type class "Ordering" is wrong ;)

Considering them both used as nouns, I would say that in normal usage, there is a difference in their active/passive connotation. If you have a collection of things, they have an order, whether or not that order was imposed on them (it could be that they just fell out of the box in a certain order). On the other hand, if they possess an ordering, it implies that someone or something put them in that order; i.e., that it was a purposeful act. I think the reason for this conceptual distinction can be traced to the derivation of "ordering" as the gerund form of the verb "order," in that it implies that an action has occurred (or is still occurring). -Steve Schafer

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 10/7/10 04:02 , Christian Sternagel wrote:

However, I do know that there are many publications about "ordered structures" which use the word "ordering" (most of which I'm aware of, not by native speakers).

Like most things in Haskell, it's named with respect to mathematical jargon, not standard dictionaries. - -- brandon s. allbery [linux,solaris,freebsd,perl] allbery@kf8nh.com system administrator [openafs,heimdal,too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu electrical and computer engineering, carnegie mellon university KF8NH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.10 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkyv2ykACgkQIn7hlCsL25VaVgCfSmQfCeOfvy+Har7VRvUKt5yD HUwAnjJXCP4M2sXmbkv0MwMVWthbS7IY =F184 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----