Bug#177206: debian-policy: Typo in Debian Policy Manual section 11.7.5
On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 06:14:26AM +0200, Richard Braakman wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 01:20:06AM +0000, Colin Watson wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 17, 2003 at 11:32:41PM +0100, Guenther Palfinger wrote:
> > > page 81/sec. 11.7.5 User configuation files ("dotfiles"): "However, programs
> > > that require dotfiles in order to operate sensibly (dotfiles that they do not
> > > create themselves automatically, that is) are a bad thing."
> > >
> > > "that is" should be at the beginning of the bracketed expression?
> >
> > No, this is a legitimate and clear construction in English.
>
> I'll give you "legitimate", but not "clear". It's a fairly rare idiom.
Hm. It's part of my natural dialect (although I admit that Irish
dialects sometimes go in for some odd constructions ...)
> The common use of "that is" is to introduce a rephrasing or clarification
> (like "i.e." does). I find it hard to even explain what it means in this
> case.
It's clarifying "require dotfiles" by saying that it's OK for a program
to require dotfiles if it creates them itself, but not if the user must
create them manually.
> I think the whole sentence can be made much more clear by eliminating
> the parentheses completely:
>
> "However, programs that require dotfiles in order to operate sensibly
> are a bad thing, unless they create the dotfiles themselves automatically."
>
> This way the qualifier does not interrupt the main statement.
Agreed; this is a better phrasing.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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