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Re: more doc. proofreading


From: Steven G. Johnson
Subject: Re: more doc. proofreading
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 11:04:30 -0400 (EDT)

On Fri, 13 Apr 2001 address@hidden wrote:
> I don't know if it's right to use the double quotes like this.  Could you
> check that in DVI and info it comes out properly?  I thought we had to
> use `` and ''.

Whoops, right.

> 
> >  @cindex @command{break}
> > -The use of @samp{break 2} etc. is safe.
> > +The use of @samp{break 2}, etcetera, is safe.
> 
> !!!  Why?  Isn't it et caetera?  At least, that's the way French spell
> Latin :)

The French are weird.  =)  It's "cetera" according to my Latin dictionary
and every reference I've ever seen; I've never seen "caetera" in English
or in Latin sources.  Apparently, there was some debate over the spelling
a few centuries ago, but "cetera" won in English and may now be preferred
even in French, according to some sources:

http://18.159.0.32:8000/patbin/oed-id?id=127548698
http://omega.cohums.ohio-state.edu/hyper-lists/classics-l/00-02-01/0010.html

In English, also, we typically elide the "et" and "cetera" into
"etcetera."

> 
> > -have been used (yes, with the parentheses).  Or better yet, using high
> > -level macros such as @code{AC_EXPAND_ONCE}.
> > +have been used (yes, with the parentheses)...or better yet, high-level
> > +macros such as @code{AC_EXPAND_ONCE}.
> 
> Aren't there any space after ellipsis in English typography?

No.  See e.g. http://www.fontsite.com/Pages/RulesOfType/ROT0398.html

> >  Like other @sc{gnu} @code{configure} scripts, Autoconf-generated
> >  @code{configure} scripts can make decisions based on a canonical name
> > -for the system type, which has the form
> > +for the system type, which has the form:
> >  @address@hidden@address@hidden, where @var{os} can be
> >  @address@hidden or @address@hidden@var{system}}
> 
> Are you sure you meant to add a colon here?  I mean, the cpu-vendor-os
> strings appears in the text body, part of the paragraph, it is not an
> @example.

Yes.  (In normal prose, the colon is more often used within a sentence
than to separate paragraphs from example code.  =)  It read better with
the colon, I though, because the sentence was getting a little long and
the colon eases the parsing of the "where" dependent clause.

> 
> > -macro was run.  Any configure script may use these variables anywhere.
> > -These are the variables that should be used when in interaction with
> > -the user.
> > address@hidden, and @samp{--target}; in particular, they are left empty
> 
> These should be @option.

Fixed, along with 16 other places that make the same mistake.

Steven




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