[systemd-devel] [PATCH] Reword sentences that contain psuedo-English "resp."

[Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek]

On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 08:26:02PM +0200, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> On Mon, 15.10.12 13:35, Dave Reisner (d at falconindy.com) wrote:
> 
> > 
> > On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 06:15:18PM +0100, Colin Guthrie wrote:
> > > 'Twas brillig, and Tom Gundersen at 15/10/12 17:57 did gyre and gimble:
> > > > On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 6:14 PM, Andrew Eikum <aeikum at codeweavers.com> wrote:
> > > >> The trouble is "resp." isn't used in English, ever.
> > > > 
> > > > For what it is worth, "resp." is commonly used in mathematics. I don't
> > > > know about technical writing in general though.
> > > 
> > > Yeah I've seen it plenty times while going through university, so while
> > > it might not be used in prose, I've never had an issue with this kind of
> > > abbreviation being used in documentation and have always understood it's
> > > meaning.
> > > 
> > > That said, the German abbreviation doesn't necessarily translate
> > > directly into an English one, so if there is any doubt just don't
> > > abbreviate it.
> > > 
> > > As a general rule, I would be against replacing it with a simple "or" as
> > > that really can change the meaning. This is technical documentation and
> > > thus syntax more aligned to common prose is not always desirable.
> > 
> > Sure, that's all well and good, but if the documentation is written in
> > English, and native English speaking people have to go out of their way
> > to figure out what it is means, isn't that a sign that perhaps it should
> > be revised?
> > 
> > Personally, I think its entirely the wrong usage of the word,
> > abbreviated or not.
> > 
> > "Start showing entries newer or of the specified date, resp. older or of
> > the specified date"
> > 
> > Perhaps simply be written as:
> > 
> > "Show entries since or until the specified date."
> 
> I deliberately didn't use "since" and "until" in the explanation, to
> clarify that the date comparison is ">=" instead of ">" and "<= instead
> of "<", respectively.
> 
> So, here's what I'd propose:
> 
>        --since=, --until=
>            Show entries newer or of the specified date, or 
>            older or of the specified date, respectively.
> 
> Does that make sense to you?

I don't think that 'of' can be applied to 'date'.  Also 'or older or'
doesn't sound right.  What about:

  Show entries on or newer than the specified date, and
  on or older than the specified date, respectively.

Zbyszek

> 
> > "Show entries newer or older than the specified date, respectively."
> > 
> > I don't believe that using "respectively" as a conjunction is
> > grammatically correct.
> 
> Yeah, the problems appear to be: the German "bzw." is an infix, the
> english "respectively" is a postfix. And the abbreviation "resp."
> doesn't appear to be common and hence should better be avoided...
> 
> Lennart
> 
> -- 
> Lennart Poettering - Red Hat, Inc.
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