On Thu, Sep 2, 2021 at 5:07 AM Zach Petch <zachpe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is minor in the grand scheme of things, but I noticed a typo in the
> man page for GNU make. In case it makes a difference, I was on a Mac
> running macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 when I came across the typo.
>
> The second paragraph under DESCRIPTION reads,
>
> > To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the makefile that
> describes the relationships among files in your program, and the states the
> commands for updating each file.
>
> It appears that the first use of "the" after the second comma should
> either be "then" or quite possibly should simply not exist at all. That
> portion of the sentence would then read either,
>
> > and then states the commands for updating each file
>
> or,
>
> > and states the commands for updating each file
>
> and would, at the very least, reduce the likelihood of people like myself
> (who need to read slowly and carefully to understand things like man pages)
> from getting temporarily tripped up by the wording of that line.
>
> I recognize that this is minor and somewhat pedantic, but I appreciate you
> taking the time to read this.
>
I'm pretty sure that it was a typo/thinko for "that states", making the
full sentence:
To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the makefile that
describes the relationships among files in your program and that states the
commands for updating each file.
I also think the second comma is incorrect ("comma splice") and suggest
removing it as seen above: even the 'Oxford comma' rule only applies to
lists of three or more items.
Philip Guenther
