Past perfect or not? (was: Re: Debian WWW CVS commit by peterk: webwml/english/partners index.wml)

[peter karlsson <peter@softwolves.pp.se>]

Josip Rodin:

> Well, IIRC from my high school English classes, that's how past
> perfect works:

It just "felt" wrong. Perhaps someone who has English as a first
language can tell us who's right?

>       Progeny had created a commercial version of Debian that included
>               ~~~
>       several feature enhancements such as a graphical installation,
>       hardware detection support, and improved configuration and management
>       tools; this has mostly been integrated into Debian proper.
>                   ~~~

If I were to write the sentence with "had" (which I probably would not
have done), I would probably have written it like this:

  Progeny had created a commercial version of Debian which did include
                                                           ^^^
  several feature enhancements, such as a graphical installation,
  hardware detection support and improved configuration and management
  tools. This has mostly been integrated into Debian proper.

but I would rather write it with "did" before the first word, to
emphasize that it indeed is a past project:

  Progeny did create a commercial version of Debian, which included
          ^^^
  several feature enhancements, such as a graphical installation,
  hardware detection support and improved configuration and management
  tools; this has since mostly been integrated into Debian proper.


Unfortunately I can't seem to find my book of English grammar at the
moment (only my German one).

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