A user vs the user - the 2nd is more common? why? [closed]

OK, just to close this, let me summarise the above. 'The' is essentially demonstrative in force: it points to our shared mental space. Like any demonstrative 'a' is dropped before it. So 'the user' is 'whichever user we happen to be talking about at the moment' and there is indeed such a user, so 'the' is natural. 'A user' is not wrong in itself, but it lacks the demonstrative force and so is less clear. May I take the chance of repeating Dan Bron's excellent comment: 'Also, please be wary of anything someone is trying to sell you as "an English grammar rule"; there's a lot of genuine imitations out there ;)' Right on there, Don!!!