[fpc-pascal]Compiler uses bad English: "amount" vs "number"

[Trevor Jenkins]

On Sat, 25 May 2002, Matt Emson wrote:

> >BigMatt19 at aol.com wrote:
> >
> >> Especially since the current term fits perfectly.  "Wrong amount of
> >> parameters" is perfectly legal in the English language.
> >
> >I beg to differ, but it is not, since "parameters" is countable, the
> >correct word is "number", not "amount."
> 
> As a British English speaker, I find the two terms interchangable. Certainly 
> not confusing in any way. I believe the devs. should do whatever they feel 
> right on this matter, but I'd personally leave it as it is.

Am also a British national and English speaker but I agree with the
original poster the best English is to say "Wrong number of
parameters". American English speakers might disagree.

However, FPC isn't the most notorious for such slips. Digital (now Compaq
now HP) had an office automation prodcut called ALL-IN-1 and one of the
messages there used the word "writting". As this was Digital major
software product and had more than 50% of the OA market. A nice gaff for
them to make. I think we can forgive the fpc crew for using a possibly
wrong word --- at least they spelt it correctly.