Re: [PATCH 16/24] hw/display: spelling fixes

[Peter Maydell]

On Thu, 24 Aug 2023 at 11:13, Philippe Mathieu-Daudé <philmd@linaro.org> wrote:
>
> On 23/8/23 08:53, Michael Tokarev wrote:
> > Signed-off-by: Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru>
> > ---
> >   hw/display/bochs-display.c | 2 +-
> >   hw/display/qxl.c           | 2 +-
> >   hw/display/ssd0303.c       | 2 +-
> >   hw/display/ssd0323.c       | 2 +-
> >   hw/display/xlnx_dp.c       | 2 +-
> >   5 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
>
> >       /*
> > -     * Get some data from the DPDMA and compute these datas.
> > +     * Get some data from the DPDMA and compute these data.
> >        * Then wait for QEMU's audio subsystem to call this callback.
> >        */
>
> TIL 'data' is plural, thanks!

It *can* be the plural of 'datum', but 'data' is also a
"mass noun" (the same way that 'butter' is always 'butter'
and not '1 butter, 2 butters'). The OED has quotes for
the mass-noun sense back as far as 1702, and in a computing
context it is overwhelmingly the common use. Use of it in
the plural in a comment in code is probably a mistake.

I agree with mjt that it's unclear what was actually
intended by this comment. My guess from the code is
something like:

   /*
    * Get the individual left and right audio streams from
    * the DPDMA, and fill the output buffer with the
    * combined stereo audio data adjusted by the volume
    * controls.
    * QEMU's audio subsystem will call this callback
    * repeatedly; we return it the data from the output
    * buffer until it is emptied, and then we will read
    * data from the DPDMA again.
    */

and the following comment should be
  /* Don't get more data until we've emptied the buffer */

(or deleted as redundant with the expanded comment above.)

-- PMM