On: Death by Inches: The battle over the metric system in America

[ScottBurson]

Actually, the use of "code" as a count noun is quite old and well entrenched in the numerical modelling community. I can recall back in the early 1970s hearing Fortran programs routinely referred to as "codes".

[walshemj → ScottBurson]

Seeing as I started as a Fortran programmer in the 70's I have never heard this usage.

Oh and this was on campus at CIT for a world leading RnD organisation in their math modelling section.

[Natsu → ScottBurson]

Code is a weird one because there are times when it's correct (e.g. "encryption codes"). But when it's used to mean "software" it should never be "codes", IMHO, though I guess there's a minority in disagreement.

[ScottBurson → Natsu]

I understand why you would think so, as I haven't heard the usage anywhere else in the software world that I've been, but it is a standard usage in that community; it's not hard to find examples [0] [1] [2] [3].

[0] http://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/f_src/f_src.html

[1] http://www.unige.ch/~hairer/software.html

[2] http://www.mcs.anl.gov/project/openadf-automatic-differentia...

[3] http://math.berkeley.edu/~strain/Codes/

[Natsu → ScottBurson]

I most often hear it from programmers who are not native speakers of English, so it always sounds wrong to me.

[walshemj → Natsu]

Yep "codes" just makes you sound amateur and third rate.

[evacchi → Natsu]

same for "data"