On Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 01:39:28PM -0500, Joe Drew wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-11-22 at 13:21, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > The formula that *could* be universally applied to all short
> > descriptions is "$PACKAGE (is|contains|provides) $SHORTDESC."; in this
> > formula, it's clear that the articles, as part of the noun phrase, would
> > be explicit in the short description when appropriate.
> A better formula would be "$PACKAGE (is|contains|provides) [a[n]]
> $SHORTDESC." which satisfies me. There is no need to have indefinite
> articles in the short description; just about every package will use
> them, and so their prescence can be inferred.
This claim contrasts sharply with my own reasons for insisting that the
indefinite articles should be included. Only one of us can be right
about the frequency of proper article use in short descriptions. Let's
take a look at a random sampling[1] of package descriptions that are
worded as noun phrases:
Description: A fully compliant CORBA implementation, executables
Description: The GNOME Bonobo library.
Description: GTK+ configurator for lineakd
Description: Clock Dock app for Window Maker window manager
Description: Developer's library for automatic language analysis
Description: Open Inventor runtime environment
Description: wxWindows Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (header files)
Description: Simple metadata system built atop UncommonSQL
Description: an interactive program to edit BibTeX bibliographies
Description: Development library for libpcap
Description: The GNU Scientific Library (GSL) -- development package
Description: PCM player designed for ALSA
Description: Development files for authentication abstraction library.
Description: A Comprehensive English Dictionary
Description: Zope Content Management Framework Core services.
Description: Perl module for using the Gnome libxml2 library
Description: mysql-server control module for webmin
Description: Internet/Intranet Input Method Emacs Client Framework
Description: BibTeX search tool
Description: The Tool Command Language (TCL) v8.0 - Development Files.
Of these 20 descriptions, three use the direct article explicitly
(albeit with incorrect capitalization):
Description: The GNOME Bonobo library.
Description: The GNU Scientific Library (GSL) -- development package
Description: The Tool Command Language (TCL) v8.0 - Development Files.
Three appear to have omitted the definite article:
Description: Open Inventor runtime environment
Description: wxWindows Cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit (header files)
Description: Development library for libpcap
Two are plurals that would not necessarily warrant an article at all
(and if it were, it would have to be a definite article):
Description: Development files for authentication abstraction library.
Description: Zope Content Management Framework Core services.
One appears to be an expansion of an acronym (no article needed):
Description: Internet/Intranet Input Method Emacs Client Framework
Five are ambiguous as written, and would easily allow for either a
definite or indefinite article:
Description: GTK+ configurator for lineakd
Description: Clock Dock app for Window Maker window manager
Description: Perl module for using the Gnome libxml2 library
Description: mysql-server control module for webmin
Description: BibTeX search tool
Three have an explicit indefinite article:
Description: A fully compliant CORBA implementation, executables
Description: an interactive program to edit BibTeX bibliographies
Description: A Comprehensive English Dictionary
And the last three have an implicit indefinite article:
Description: Developer's library for automatic language analysis
Description: Simple metadata system built atop UncommonSQL
Description: PCM player designed for ALSA
So from a sample of 20 descriptions, nine would clearly be rendered
incorrect if the indefinite article were formulaically prepended; five
would be grammatically correct, but the addition may change the intended
meaning of the phrase; and six would clearly be correct if the
indefinite article were prepended (assuming they were first all modified
to fit your proposed model).
This is hardly overwhelming evidence that indefinite articles can be
omitted because "just about every package will use them."
> The definite article ('the', for those wondering) implies something
> different, so I can understand the desire for its inclusion (although
> I dislike having articles included at all).
> What absolutely, definitely is wrong for a description is something
> which doesn't even remotely fit into this mould, i.e.
> alien - install non-native packages with dpkg
I agree that package short descriptions ought to be noun phrases.
--
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer
[1] grep '^ Description: ' /var/lib/dpkg/available | head ...
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