On Tue, 4 May 2010, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
Looked it up in the net now, e.g., <http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/may-might.aspx>, tells me that I should be using "might" instead of "may" only for things that are rather improbable to happen. <http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch10.html> tells me that "may" can be used as a more formal form of some meanings of "can" or "is able to", which I think is applicable here. Remains avoidance of repetition, which is generally a good thing in flowing text but not needed so much in technical documentation which is more concerned with correctness. I'll apply the patch below soon unless I hear complaints.
As a native english speaker, I don't think that these particular improvements are improvements. I like the existing text better.
Bob
Thanks, Ralf Reword alternate versioning algorithm a bit. * doc/libtool.texi (Updating version info): Replace some uses of `may' with `might' or `can' as appropriate. Suggestion by Tor Lillqvist. diff --git a/doc/libtool.texi b/doc/libtool.texi index 987b232..ec24a2f 100644 --- a/doc/libtool.texi +++ b/doc/libtool.texi @@ -2947,7 +2947,7 @@ Instead, use the @option{-release} flag (@pxref{Release numbers}), but be warned that every release of your package will not be binary compatible with any other release. -The following explanation may help to understand the above rules a bit +The following explanation can help to understand the above rules a bit better: consider that there are three possible kinds of reactions from users of your library to changes in a shared library: @@ -2961,14 +2961,14 @@ is needed. In this case, bump @var{revision} only, don't touch @item Programs using the previous version may use the new version as -drop-in replacement, but programs using the new version may use APIs not +drop-in replacement, but programs using the new version can use APIs not present in the previous one. In other words, a program linking against -the new version may fail with ``unresolved symbols'' if linking against +the new version might fail with ``unresolved symbols'' if linking against the old version at runtime: set @var{revision} to 0, bump @var{current} and @var{age}. @item -Programs may need to be changed, recompiled, relinked in order to use +Programs might need to be changed, recompiled, relinked in order to use the new version. Bump @var{current}, set @var{revision} and @var{age} to 0. @end enumerate
-- Bob Friesenhahn bfrie...@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/ GraphicsMagick Maintainer, http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/