Jens Seidel wrote: > as described in #400970 the formulation of the short description starting > with a verb is not clear. Chapter 6.2.2 suggests: > > "A good heuristic is that it should be possible to substitute the package > name and synopsis into this formula: > > The package <name> provides {a,an,the,some} <synopsis>." > > Applying this to a package description as > "display large colourful characters in text mode" > one could guess that a 3rd person form is more suitable: > "displays " ...
No; both are wrong and fail the heuristic. "Display things" is a verb phrase; "displays things" is a verb phrase; and verb phrases don't fit the formula. As the previous line of DevRef6.2.2 says, what developers are meant to be using is a noun phrase (minus articles), _not_ a verb phrase. Of course, DevRef guidelines aren't legally binding, so a lot of package descriptions are malformed. Since I'm the guy who came up with the current phrasing (of a pre-existing recommendation; see bug #516436), I'd be interested to hear what you'd suggest as a way of communicating this more clearly. It was already obvious that technical terms alone wouldn't work (because they're meaningless to non-linguists); but it seems the substitution formula doesn't work very well either. Or does it just need to give more examples? Maybe examples of what _isn't_ right? In this specific case: Package: toilet Description: display large colourful characters in text mode The problem with a synopsis like toilet's is that it doesn't say what sort of thing this package is. What's needed is a description that makes it clear to people browsing the package repositories whether toilet is a: - daemon that puts a scrolling marquee on the console - font-setup utility for the partially sighted - text banner generator using ASCII art See? Those are all expressed so that they do fit the formula - "The package toilet provides a... text banner generator using ASCII art". Oh, and if that package description came to debian-l10n-english for review I'd also en_USify the spellings and ask "why TOIlet?" -- JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org