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Re: Changes to grep/doc/grep.1
From: |
Benno Schulenberg |
Subject: |
Re: Changes to grep/doc/grep.1 |
Date: |
Wed, 09 Nov 2005 20:00:55 +0100 |
User-agent: |
KMail/1.8.3 |
Charles Levert wrote:
> +The
> +.B grep
> +command searches [...]
Sorry, but I don't like this -- because it is different from other
man pages. Also because it contains two unnecessary words, and (to
really split hairs) a command doesn't search, but is given: the
program does the searching.
The main point is that using "The" and "command" makes it different
from other man pages. Some examples:
*arch* is equivalent...
*bc* is a language...
*cp* copies files...
*df* reports the amount...
*ed* is a line-oriented...
*fuser* displays the PIDs...
Of course, this is a carefully selected series of examples; there
are many others that simply skip repeating the program's name,
there are several that get it wrong (with an initial uppercase:
file, gawk, less, ...), and there are a few that do it your way:
The GNU *ar* program creates...
The program *ls* lists...
If you really wish to start the sentence with "The", then at least
use the word "program", not "command", as this is more something
for a shell, and also not "utility", as it is nice to be able to
tell from just the language whether one is reading a GNU or a POSIX
man page:
The _alias_ utility...
The _batch_ utility...
But really I prefer the old way:
*grep* searches through files...
> For example, the shell command
> -.B "egrep '{1'"
> +.B "grep\ \-E\ '{1'"
Hmm, "shell command"? Better simply "command" here.
Benno
- Re: Changes to grep/doc/grep.1,
Benno Schulenberg <=