What preposition should one use with "redundant"?
The correct idiom is:
A is redundant with B.
Google hit counts confirm that "redundant with" is by far the preferred usage:
- "redundant with" — 310,000 results
- "redundant of" — 45,900 results
"Redundant to" actually shows more results that "redundant with", but the vast majority of those are actually "redundant" followed by an infinitive, eg. "It is redundant to specify both height and width."
As I programmer , and not an English professor I would like to offer what I consider the logical solution.
A and B are redundant... Is the best general approach, because there are no relationships defined and because of this the statement is easily clarified. Simply put, both terms are redundant, and we do not care why, we also don't care what they are redundant to.
A is redundant with B.... In this approach I get the feeling that A and B are somehow connected in the following ways:
- Both A and B are redundant
- Both A and B possibly became redundant at the same point in time
- Both A and B are possibly redundant for the same reason
... to B .... Here the meaning is completely changed, here we see A becoming redundant to B. Not related to A and B are redundant.
... of B .... Again this adds more meaning to the statement. A of B. When B exists A is redundant. If B does not exist, then A is possibly relevant.
That is my 2 cents as a developer.