On Thu, 1 Feb 2007, Bruce Momjian wrote: > From: Bruce Momjian <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Tom Lane wrote: > > 3606c3606 > > < errmsg("aggregate function calls cannot be nested"))); > > --- > > > errmsg("aggregate function calls may not be nested"))); > > > > I don't think that this is an improvement, or even correct English. > > > > You have changed a message that states that an action is logically > > impossible into one that implies we are arbitrarily refusing to let > > the user do something that *could* be done, if only we'd let him. > > > > There is relevant material in the message style guidelines, section > > 45.3.8: it says that "cannot open file "%s" ... indicates that the > > functionality of opening the named file does not exist at all in the > > program, or that it's conceptually impossible." > > Uh, I think you might be reading the diff backwards. The current CVS > wording is "cannot".
No, Bruce, he got it exactly right: "cannot" indicates, as Tom put it, "logical impossibility," whereas "may not" suggests that something could happen but it's being prevented. His parsing of the english was spot-on. RT -- Richard Troy, Chief Scientist Science Tools Corporation 510-924-1363 or 202-747-1263 [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://ScienceTools.com/ ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings