Re: [GRASS-dev] Re: [GRASS-CVS] carlos: grass6/raster/r.his main.c, 2.6, 2.7

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:23:24 -0700

Martin Landa escribió:
Hi,

just a stupid note

-               G_fatal_error(_("Unable to open raster map [%s]"), name_h);
+               G_fatal_error(_("Unable to open raster map <%s>"), name_h);

wouldn't be better to use "Cannot open raster map <%s>"?, see wiki and
discussion in grass-dev mailing list...
For sure I may be wrong, but I've been revising wiki and lists (dev and translations) and I can't see where it is suggested to use cannot instead of unable to.
What I found is:
>From wiki

Standard messages sandbox

  • First letter should be capitalized
  • Use the present tense (cannot instead of could not; better: unable to)
...
  • G_open_cell_old
"Unable to open raster map <%s>"
>From translation list:
> > > I would prefer not using "Cannot...".  It's bad grammar.  I would much
> > > prefer "Unable to..." or something to that effect.

> > 
> > While I can see your point, that construction is quite common in error
> > messages, e.g.:
> > 
> > 	$ ls -l foo
> > 	ls: cannot access foo: No such file or directory
> > 
> > Neither "cannot ..." nor "unable to ..." form complete sentences.
> > 
> > If you're concerned about grammar, you can provide an explicit subject
> > ("The program cannot ..."), or use the third person (e.g. "The file
> > cannot be found").
> > 
> > Personally, I don't have a problem with just omitting the subject.


> Point taken.  I was really referring to the usage of "Cannot".  Some
> dictionaries do not recognize it as 'real word', yet others (that are
> generally more progressive with slang and contractions) say that it
> should replace "can not" in modern English.

> 
> It's a non-problem.  In modules I've [re]written, I've used "Unable to",
> but I can go back and change them for consistency.
It seems to me that "Unable to" is the most impartial form.


Martin

PS: Thanks to Carlos for this hard job!
Thanks to all of you for the support.

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