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Re: more doc. proofreading


From: Russ Allbery
Subject: Re: more doc. proofreading
Date: 13 Apr 2001 17:07:50 -0700
User-agent: Gnus/5.0807 (Gnus v5.8.7) XEmacs/21.1 (Channel Islands)

akim <address@hidden> writes:
> On Fri, Apr 13, 2001 at 01:32:25AM -0400, Steven G. Johnson wrote:

>>  @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 :)

Seeing etc. fully expanded is very unusual, at least in my dialect of
written English.  In this case, I think a rephrasing would be better (to
avoid the problem of a comma following a period).  How about:

  The use of @samp{break 2} and the like is safe.

There's no need to set "and the like" off in commas.  If we wanted to be
somewhat more explicit for people who don't know shell well enough to
realize what @samp{break 2} may be referring to, I'd recommend:

  The use of @samp{break 2}, @samp{break 3}, and so on is safe.

(Again, no comma before "is safe" is indicated here.)

I slightly prefer the latter version because I think it's clearer.

-- 
Russ Allbery (address@hidden)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>



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