bug#13409: [patch] make some error messages clearer

[Jim Meyering]

Paul Eggert wrote:

> On 01/10/13 11:20, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
>> Several error messages in some of the utilities say things
>> like "reading %s".  They sound like progress messages, and
>> translators might be tempted to translate them as if they
>> said "busy reading %s"
>
> -          error (0, errno, _("reading %s"), quote (src_name));
> +          error (0, errno, _("error reading %s"), quote (src_name));
>
> Surely a translator who read the message in context will see
> that it's an error message, since 'error' is being called.
>
> I'm not sure we want to change the wording, but if we do change
> it I suggest "cannot read %s" rather than "error reading %s",
> as the gerunds make the wording less clear.

Hi Paul,

I prefer to avoid "cannot" in new diagnostics, because its semantics
are a not as clear as "failed to", e.g.,

-          error (0, errno, _("reading %s"), quote (src_name));
+          error (0, errno, _("failed to read %s"), quote (src_name));

To some, "cannot" might suggest "not allowed to", whereas "failed to"
has no such ambiguity.