Re: a plain English "FizzBuZZ" idiom

Mike Gonta <mikegonta@gmail.com> writes:

On 2024-03-22 9:05 a.m., Tim Rentsch wrote:
>

Bruce Axtens <snetxa@hotmail.com> writes:
>

On 2/03/2024 4:06 am, Mike Gonta wrote:
>

      if the counter is divisible by 3 then

>
The counter is always divisible by 3.  It is not always *evenly*
divisible by 3.

>
In mathematics standard terminology uses "a is divisible by b"
to mean "a is an integer multiple of b".  The "evenly" is not
needed.

>
Thanks Tim, that's an excellent point.
And while some think that redundancy in grammar is bad, it definitely
has it's uses.  [...]

I feel obliged to point out that the word here is "its", not "it's".
The word "it's" is a contraction for "it is".  "It" is a personal
pronoun, and the possessive forms of personal pronouns are always
spelled without apostrophes, as for example "he" and "his".  The
word "it" follows this rule.

If you feel a need to add some redundancy, I suggest

   if the counter is divisible by 3 (meant in the mathematical
   sense of being an integer multiple of 3)

In answer to your other question, thank you for asking.  My
preference is not to be attributed in your website pages.
The more impersonal form "It was pointed out that ..." conveys
the most important information, and focuses readers' attention
on that information without distracting them with extraneous
information about who did the pointing.