Re: about: Debian Free Software Guidelines
On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Marco Herrn wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 07, 2001 at 02:53:08PM +0200, Peter Palfrader wrote:
> > > In german, "darf nicht" means: "is not allowed to" whereas
> > > in english, "may not" is more like "is allowed to not ..."
> > > conversely, the english "must not" is stronger than the german "muss nicht".
> >
> > Are you sure you're not confusing 'need not' and 'may not'?
> > In my opinion 'may not' is the same as 'must not'. (as in 'darf nicht')
> >
> > need not - is allowed to not - muss nicht
Nifty, a discussion of English grammar and usage - finally,
something I feel totally competent in! :)
This should probably be " - is allowed not to" rather than
" - is allowed to not" which is an awkward construction in
English.
> > may not, must not - is not allowed to - darf nicht
>
> I think Peter is right.
> Maybe a native english speaker can tell us what is correct.
In this context, "must" should probably be
used because "must" is typically used in law and policy.
If I recall correctly, "must" is the term typically used in
RFCs to indicate something a program must do or must not do.
In spoken English they're interchanged pretty freely, but
in this case "must" is more correct.
"May not do x" doesn't mean "is allowed to not do x"
it means that permission is not given to do x. Since we're
talking about policy an guidelines, though, "must" is more
clear.
Hope this helps - English is probably the most confusing
language to learn as a non-native speaker. The only
inviolable rule in the English language is that there
are no inviolable rules...
Take care,
Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier@earthlink.net
http://www.ZonkerBooks.net/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability
to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable
for their apparent disinclination to do so." -- Douglas Adams
Reply to: