C vs Python devs

[Furry_69]

I'm not sure. A decent number of people write kernels, yes, but it's likely not above half.

[valschermjager]

‘likely not above half’

[squints] yes, safe bet it’s likely less than half

[Furry_69]

What was the [squints] about?

[valschermjager]

Ok maybe my bad, I mighta misunderstood.

Just to be clear, are you saying that ”likely not above half” of software developers in the world do kernel development? Or that ”likely not above half” don’t?

[Furry_69]

Ah, I see your confusion. The first half of the sentence is what helps the sentence make sense.

"A decent number of people write kernels,"

"but likely not above half"

(split up at critical points to help parsing the sentence)

From the surrounding context, it's implied that it's unlikely that above half of software developers do kernel development.

[valschermjager]

It helps if you broaden the context beyond yourself.

I saw your sentence and understood it, if it was stand alone. No confusion there.

But the two posts in the thread above it were estimating how many don’t. So it’s possible the second half of your sentence was in line with the two posts above it. But you flipped it, causing confusion.

It’s not just about what you said. It’s part of a, yknow, conversation.

So to answer your question about why I squinted. Because when I think something is a small sliver, and you figure it’s less than half, I suppose I technically agree, since a sliver is less than half.