From: David Gibson <david@gibson.dropbear.id.au>
To: "Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday@crashcourse.ca>
Cc: devicetree spec mailing list <devicetree-spec@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Definition of "should" seems inconsistent with idea of "deprecated"
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 10:33:07 +1100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <ZTG8szcUghDU12ZZ@zatzit> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <cddc5065-42d2-11f6-9195-296361c8aef7@crashcourse.ca>
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On Thu, Oct 19, 2023 at 07:03:56AM -0400, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>
> Reading DTSpec v0.4, near the beginning:
>
> "The word should is used to indicate that among several possibilities
> one is recommended as particularly suitable, without mentioning or
> excluding others; or that a certain course of action is preferred but
> not necessarily required; or that (in the negative form) a certain
> course of action is deprecated but not prohibited (should equals is
> recommended that)."
>
> It seems contradictory to suggest that "should" implies
> "recommended" but, in the negative sense, it can also support
I believe that by "in the negative form", it means when something says
"should not"..
> "deprecated", which typically suggests something that is *not*
> recommended but is nonetheless acceptable.
..in which case being similar to "deprecated" makes sense.
I will agree that saying "in the negative form", parenthesized,
amongst a cluster of interacting clauses is probably not a great way
of expressing this, and it might be clearer to explicitly give a
meaning to "should not".
>
> It just seems like that's giving off mixed messages.
>
> rday
>
--
David Gibson | I'll have my music baroque, and my code
david AT gibson.dropbear.id.au | minimalist, thank you. NOT _the_ _other_
| _way_ _around_!
http://www.ozlabs.org/~dgibson
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-10-20 0:10 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-10-19 11:03 Definition of "should" seems inconsistent with idea of "deprecated" Robert P. J. Day
2023-10-19 23:33 ` David Gibson [this message]
2023-10-21 9:08 ` Robert P. J. Day
2023-10-23 0:32 ` David Gibson
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