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From: "G. Branden Robinson" <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
To: Jeremy Baxter <jtbx@disroot.org>
Cc: Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>, linux-man@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/6] intro.1: Revise language
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 14:56:57 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20240318195657.bihsax5gk5jx5tyc@illithid> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CZX4Y18EKIWK.1YLSFJIPJG2YA@disroot.org>

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At 2024-03-19T08:50:21+1300, Jeremy Baxter wrote:
> > cat will show
> > but
> > cp copies
> > ?
> 
> I think it sounds better to use the "x does this" form rather than the
> "x will do this" form, similar to what they have in the utilities' own
> man pages. What do you think? Should I change cat's description to
> adhere to the rest or just keep all of them as they were?

Two rules I've been applying to my man page revisions for a while are:

* Favor active voice over passive.
* Favor present tense over future.

This is "favor", not "always use", but, other things being equal...

Regards,
Branden

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  reply	other threads:[~2024-03-18 19:56 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 19+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2024-03-17  8:08 [PATCH v2 1/6] intro.1: Revise language Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17  8:08 ` [PATCH v2 2/6] intro.1: Document the meaning of the PS1 variable Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17 15:00   ` Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-18 19:52     ` Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17  8:08 ` [PATCH v2 3/6] intro.1: Explain the meaning of a directory Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17 15:05   ` Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-18 19:57     ` Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-18 21:57       ` Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-18 22:28         ` Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17  8:08 ` [PATCH v2 4/6] intro.1: Demonstrate special cases of the cd command Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17 15:07   ` Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-17  8:08 ` [PATCH v2 5/6] intro.1: Define a process ID Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17  8:08 ` [PATCH v2 6/6] intro.1: Revise paragraph documenting GNU texinfo Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-17 15:10   ` Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-17 14:47 ` [PATCH v2 1/6] intro.1: Revise language Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-18 19:50   ` Jeremy Baxter
2024-03-18 19:56     ` G. Branden Robinson [this message]
2024-03-18 22:05       ` Alejandro Colomar
2024-03-18 22:32         ` Jeremy Baxter

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