On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 12:27 PM, Xen <l...@xenhideout.nl> wrote: > R. Mark Aldrich schreef op 28-09-2016 22:55: > > Section 5 starts with >> "A useful shortcut notation you will often see on the lists.", which >> makes sense if you read it as Yoda, but I think it would make more >> sense to change it to "You will often see useful shortcut notations on >> the lists." >> > > That has a different meaning. > > The author is not saying that you will often see useful shortcut notations > on the lists. The phrase references a part that has not been uttered, so > you would have to say something like "Some useful .... you may come across > on the lists are "dev" and "..." as abbreviations of mailing lists" -- > because the existing statement consists of parts, and so if you want to put > it "back together" you must unite those parts. > > In general you cannot rewrite individual statements, you must rewrite the > whole thing if you want the text to keep its flow and consistency and > meaning. > > It's the same as > > "Something you may want to know about... Yesterday I came across something > I want you to know, and it is that ...". It is just a way of conversing, or > phrasing things. > > or > > "That thing I was thinking about. You have heard it before. It is ...". > > So if you change it, you must at least rewrite the whole section. But > ideally you would change the whole thing (in style) ;-). > > Personally I would only do so if I thought a different style would be more > readable and more comfortable or convenient as a way of relaxing. > > Less staccato, and more fluid, perhaps. > > Anyway, just saying ;-). > > However the current style precisely expresses what it needed to express. > Fixing stuff and then discovering that the result is worse than before is > not a good way to spend time ;-). > > Regards.
I still don't quite get what this phrase is trying to express, and it really sounds like Yoda to me too. I would certainly try to rephrase it so it flows better. My understanding is that this is what it's trying to get across: "You will often find in the mailing lists that a shortcut notation is used to refer to the same lists. Writing a list name in full, like dev@openoffice.apache.org can be tedious. So you will often see it called just "dev"." > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org > > Regards, -- John R. D'Orazio
