There is one "a" in space. There are many in "spaaaace"
This means "spaaaace", "spaaaaace", etc. are valid.
It's been a while since I've received a decent flame email, so it's hats off to one Lorne Babcock for this missive which sizzled into my inbox this morning, bemoaning the headline "Beer in SPAAAACE! London Pride soars to 28,000m"... SPAAAACE! How many A's should there be in the word space? The years go by Lester, and you do …
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void* space = 0;
is equal to that.
Space is infinite, so if you start at a compiler-defined nullptr or at 0 does not matter, because infinity.
I could just as well have said
void* space = 1337;
or whatever it doesn't make a difference.
I did however forget to cast.
So it should've been
void* space = (void*)0;
nullptr is c++11 specific which doesn't work well for the god-language that is C.
Probably should be four A's as per four aces, four Ecks etc as a coinage based on prior art. I would say 5 or more is considered excessive based on this and is probably wasting a tiny fraction of my mobiles bandwidth.
It's either that or the A's need the bar above to indicate long sounds like the dictionaries but given that I am assuming this is a PUN based on the age of the writers perhaps the announcement of the black and white lost in space or the colour pigs in space meme from the muppets is the driver.
Either way 5 or more A's is cheating ...
Given that it's now the summer, it should be a lacrosse stick.
NATIONAL SPORTS OF CANADA
Marginal note:Hockey and lacrosse to be national sports
2. The game commonly known as ice hockey is hereby recognized and declared to be the national winter sport of Canada and the game commonly known as lacrosse is hereby recognized and declared to be the national summer sport of Canada.
Nomenclature:
Hockey played on grass = 'field hockey'
Hockey played in a gymnasium = 'floor hockey' or 'ball hockey'
Hockey played on ice = 'hockey'
And the only reason for the winter sport/summer sport thing is lacrosse was originally Canada's national sport dating back to the original settlements, but hockey has taken over, so the politically correct way to handle it is to slowly phase out lacrosse by declaring them co-national sports for a while, until lacrosse can be quietly retired.
That, or a really good working relationship with Roskosmos. Before long, we're going to need to know what the word for "SPAAAACE" is in Russian and Chinese, and possibly Hindi. Unfortunately "пространство" is a bit of a mouthful, but at least the accent falls in the right place, so простраааанство! is an option.
Don't wanna be a Canadian idiot
Don't wanna be some beer swillin' hockey nut
And do I look like some frostbitten hose-head?
I never learned my alphabet from A to Zed
They all live on donuts and moose meat
And they leave the house without packin' heat
Never even bring their guns to the mall
And you know what else is too funny?
Their stupid Monopoly money
Can't take 'em seriously at all
Well maple syrup and snow's what they export
They treat curling just like it's a real sport
They think their silly accent is so cute
Can't understand a thing they're talkin' aboot
Sure they got their national health care
Cheaper meds, low crime rates and clean air
Then again well they got Celine Dion
Eat their weight in Kraft macaroni
And dream of drivin' a Zamboni
All over Saskatchewan
Don't wanna be a Canadian idiot
Won't figure out their temperature in Celsius
See the map, they're hoverin' right over us
Tell you the truth, it makes me kinda nervous
Always hear the same kind of story
Break their nose and they'll just say "sorry"
Tell me what kind of freaks are that polite?
It's gotta mean they're all up to somethin'
So quick, before they see it comin'
Time for a pre-emptive strike!
Thankfully Weird Al got a few things wrong. We shipped Celine Dion to Vegas years ago (J-Biebs is held not far from there, too).
Lucky for you yobs we truly know what it's like to be in absolute zero temps and survive.
I, for one, am Proud To Be A Canadian (as per the following traditions...) http://youtu.be/AAbisg02JD4
Oh yeah, I almost forgot why I came here tonight --> Take off, Eh?
Every body stand back! I know regular expressions! (Obligatory quote)
Now to be picky-picky-picky, and hope to goodness I don't slip up here:
a) At least one A: SPA\+CE
b) Stars in space: SP\*\*\+ or, better: SP\*\{2,}CE
But I did upvote SP*CE, because it is poetically correct.
I've been using vim too much.
See:
http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Simplifying_regular_expressions_using_magic_and_no-magic
So much for this reassurance:
"Vim's default 'magic' setting makes characters have the same meaning as in grep, and \v (very magic) makes them the same as the extended regular expressions used by egrep."
Hmmm, I don't think Babcock has really thought about his question systematically. Consider, the earth is in space, English is both spoken and written on earth, as well as used by the occasional astronaut. Looking at only written English, "A" is estimated to have a frequency of slightly over 8% in written English - and note that many European languages also use "A," although they often call it "Ah". So the answer would have to be, a very large number of "A"s are in space. Unfortunately, without better data the figure will remain indeterminate.
"I keep hoping that a very great chasm will open up someplace in the middle of his country and the whole bloody works of them will slide in and disappear."
If we could just work it out so that chasm runs roughly along the Mississippi River and the chasm drags the west coast right up against the Appalachians. So that would be California, Oregon and Washington on one side and say Virginia through Maine on the other. That might sort a few things out here in the U.S.