I think the poster is trying to improve the documentation. That is good.
As Eric said, it could only be evaluated with a specific patch.
To my understanding, the post suggests replacing "while" with "wereas"
somewhere. But "wereas" is not a word, nor (usually) a while synonym. :(
It seems that "despite of" or "in contrast of" are also suggested as
alternatives to "while". However, "despite of" and "in contrast of" are
*not* grammatically correct English. :( Nor are they anything close to a
synonym for "while" or "until".
Take the sentence "While I was studying the m4 while command, my brain
exploded." :) It would be difficult to replace "while" with a good
equivalent. "As I was studying the m4 while command, my brain exploded"
is close. The literal would be "During the time I was studying the m4
while command, my brain exploded."
Or take "Until I studied the m4 until command, I was sane". :) The only
alternative seems "Before the time I studied the m4 until command, I was
sane".
IMO, the downside of the poster's good idea outweigh the upsides.
PS - The suggestion to expunge "while" and "until" from m4 docs (other
than as a command) reminds me a bit of some "constrained" novels. In one
example, "Gadsby" (not "The Great Gatsby"), no words containing the
letter "e" were used. :) Pretty challenging! In another example,
"Eunoia", each chapter only contains words with a single vowel. So there
might be a sentence like "Hassan can, at a handclap, call a vassal at
hand and ask that all staff plan a bacchanal". :)
Daniel
On 2/27/2019 7:09 AM, Eric Blake wrote:
[I'm not sure why the original mail didn't seem to hit the list]
On 2/26/19 1:34 PM, HaimMelamed wrote:
hello,
after reading, maybe its better to change words like "while" with "wereas"
or "despite of" or "in contrast of" ......
because the confusion of known operational commands like "ifelse" or
"forloop" or "while" or "until".
best regards
Rather than a vague suggestion, it's easier to evaluate this if you can
propose an actual patch (showing both the before and after of a sentence
you find confusing without your rewording).
"despite of" and "in contrast of" are not idiomatic English; while I
don't mind helping you come up with grammar that matches a native
speaker's expectations, it's hard to do that without having an actual
sentence being changed, rather than just a couple of words from an
unspecified sentence.
