english grammar and patches

english grammar and patches

[Tobin C. Harding]

This question relates to English grammar and correct usage when
writing gitlog messages and patch series cover letters.

The writing of gitlog messages is covered in submitting-patches.rst,
of note is the mood to use. It is not stated but I think it is
a subjunctive description of the problem being addressed followed by
an imperative description of what is being done in the patch. Please
correct me if I am wrong.

The question is: what mood to use in the cover letter. Also, is the
subject of the cover letter explicit or implicit? Said another way is
it acceptable to say 'this series' within the cover letter? It is
specifically stated not to use the subject within the patch itself,
however, many patch sets on LKML use the subject in the cover letter.

Finally, has anyone, within easy reach, a link to a canonical patch
set cover letter. I have searched LKML but am unable to judge for
myself. I would like to add a link to the kernel newbies wiki also if
one is available.

thanks,
Tobin.

english grammar and patches

[valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu]

On Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:27:00 +1000, "Tobin C. Harding" said:
> This question relates to English grammar and correct usage when
> writing gitlog messages and patch series cover letters.
>
> The writing of gitlog messages is covered in submitting-patches.rst,
> of note is the mood to use. It is not stated but I think it is
> a subjunctive description of the problem being addressed followed by
> an imperative description of what is being done in the patch. Please
> correct me if I am wrong.
>
> The question is: what mood to use in the cover letter.

Please note that most kernel hackers wouldn't recognize a subjunctive mood
if it bit them on the ass.  In addition, we have a large number of people
writing code for whom English is a second, or third, or even not well learned
fourth language.

And I'm not even convinced that even if they were able to recognize it,
that it would be the correct mood to use.

http://www.dummies.com/education/language-arts/grammar/using-the-subjunctive-mood-in-english/

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 486 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.kernelnewbies.org/pipermail/kernelnewbies/attachments/20170425/d0e8b413/attachment.bin 

english grammar and patches

[Greg KH]

On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 09:25:26PM -0400, valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:27:00 +1000, "Tobin C. Harding" said:
> > This question relates to English grammar and correct usage when
> > writing gitlog messages and patch series cover letters.
> >
> > The writing of gitlog messages is covered in submitting-patches.rst,
> > of note is the mood to use. It is not stated but I think it is
> > a subjunctive description of the problem being addressed followed by
> > an imperative description of what is being done in the patch. Please
> > correct me if I am wrong.
> >
> > The question is: what mood to use in the cover letter.
> 
> Please note that most kernel hackers wouldn't recognize a subjunctive mood
> if it bit them on the ass.  In addition, we have a large number of people
> writing code for whom English is a second, or third, or even not well learned
> fourth language.
> 
> And I'm not even convinced that even if they were able to recognize it,
> that it would be the correct mood to use.
> 
> http://www.dummies.com/education/language-arts/grammar/using-the-subjunctive-mood-in-english/

I agree with these, and then there is the big fact that some
maintainers, myself included, just ignore the 00/XX emails and don't
really read them, as the patches themselves should contain enough
information to understand what is happening.

But note, some maintainers really do like them, and do care.  So you
can't ignore them.  Just do a short summary of what is going to be in
the patch series, that's all.  No one expects a short essay with correct
grammer, this shouldn't be a major amount of work to create it, just a
few sentences saying what the patch series contains is all that is
needed.

thanks,

greg k-h

english grammar and patches

[Tobin C. Harding]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 06:34:39AM +0200, Greg KH wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 09:25:26PM -0400, valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> > On Wed, 26 Apr 2017 10:27:00 +1000, "Tobin C. Harding" said:
> > > This question relates to English grammar and correct usage when
> > > writing gitlog messages and patch series cover letters.
> > >
> > > The writing of gitlog messages is covered in submitting-patches.rst,
> > > of note is the mood to use. It is not stated but I think it is
> > > a subjunctive description of the problem being addressed followed by
> > > an imperative description of what is being done in the patch. Please
> > > correct me if I am wrong.
> > >
> > > The question is: what mood to use in the cover letter.
> > 
> > Please note that most kernel hackers wouldn't recognize a subjunctive mood
> > if it bit them on the ass.  In addition, we have a large number of people
> > writing code for whom English is a second, or third, or even not well learned
> > fourth language.
> > 
> > And I'm not even convinced that even if they were able to recognize it,
> > that it would be the correct mood to use.
> > 
> > http://www.dummies.com/education/language-arts/grammar/using-the-subjunctive-mood-in-english/
> 
> I agree with these, and then there is the big fact that some
> maintainers, myself included, just ignore the 00/XX emails and don't
> really read them, as the patches themselves should contain enough
> information to understand what is happening.
> 
> But note, some maintainers really do like them, and do care.  So you
> can't ignore them.  Just do a short summary of what is going to be in
> the patch series, that's all.  No one expects a short essay with correct
> grammer, this shouldn't be a major amount of work to create it, just a
> few sentences saying what the patch series contains is all that is
> needed.

Oh cool, thank you!

Tobin