I am not a perfectionist – no, not even close by. But if something ‘better’ is possible without trying too hard or breaking too many eggs, I like to do it, or get it done.

I had been browsing, blog-reading and generally surfing around when something caught my eye. It said “1 clicks”, regarding the statistics of visitors on some link, on some site (not at all related to mine, I assure you). Elsewhere, I have also seen “1 messages received.” Come on. Whatever has happened to the singular-plural concepts of the world? It is all very well to say that as long as the meaning is conveyed, the grammar doesn’t matter – because it does matter. We are not talking about some non-English speaking natives trying their hand at communication. This is software, which is as perfect as its developer (and the tester, and the overseer, and the number of people who see it before it hits the end user). A person who has not done any amount of coding would probably forgive the software, thinking that it is unkind to point out such flaws when the world has bigger issues to worry about. After several years of raw software filtering through my fingers, having had the honour to create software that others use, I have tried to pay attention to detail (Granted, I may have missed a few here and there, but certainly not something as conspicuous as this). So, when I see someone else’ software not behaving the way I would like it to – especially when I am the end user – I get exasperated.

They could at least have put it as 1 click(s) or 1 message(s) – though I agree, that is also quite dumb. But if you know programming, you know that it is not too memory- or processor-consuming to write a small switch to say “1 click” and “2 clicks”. And the same routine can be re-used to satisfy the theories of re-usability and modularity that developers swear by. The minute effort it takes will be compensated by a huge amount of user-satisfaction.

But we tend to adjust easily to these little discrepancies of life – indeed, in the world of texting (SMS) there is no grammar, there is no spelling, there are no clicks or messages, only clks and msgs.

So perhaps I am the only one who is overly concerned about a clicks or a mistakes.