Re: upgrade to Wheezy fails with aptitude

[Pierre Frenkiel <pierre.frenkiel@gmail.com>]

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012, Lisi wrote:

> Tenses are often very difficult for non-native speakers of English to
> understand.

It's funny. Do you really think that the the meaning of the past tense 
is different in other languages!?
IMO, your interpretation of the past tense is wrong: The fact that 
a statement was written in the past never implied, in any language, that
it is no more valid. Example:

 "Pasteur recommended to wash hands frequently"

If the old statement is no more valid, that needs to be  specified 
explicitly, preferably in the same sentence or the next one,
as in the following (half-imaginary) example:

: "Pasteur recommended to boil water before drinking it, but this is no more
  needed in most modern countries"

So, to come back to Debian upgrade, in the following sentence

    The upgrade process for other releases recommended the use of aptitude
    for the upgrade.

the past tense is obviously used because this recommendation was written 
in the past, but it is nowhere writen that it is no more valid, except for
upgrades from Debian 5.0 to Debian 6.0. For example, reading that,
I would still use aptitude to upgrade from Debian 4.0 to Debian 5.0
If you want an other proof that I am right, look at section 4.2

   Please follow the instructions in the Release Notes for Debian GNU/Linux
   5.0 to upgrade to 5.0 first.

Please note that "follow" is not at the past tense!

On the contrary, reading:

   apt-get is the preferred program for package management from
   console to perform system installation and major system upgrades

I would use apt-get to upgrade to 5.0 
Please note the plural, and that there is not a single restriction
for the concerned realeases

So, I persist to say that the 2 sentences are contradictory. I'll
propose a slight modification to remove this contradiction:

1/  in 4.4.6, replace

      The upgrade process for other releases recommended the use of
      aptitude for the upgrade. This tool is not recommended for upgrades
      from lenny to squeeze.

    by

      The recommended tool for system upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze
      is apt-get. For upgrades to previous releases, it is aptitude

2/ in the Debian faq, replace

     Note that apt-get now installs recommended packages as default and is
     the preferred program for package management from console to perform
     system installation and major system upgrades for its robustness.

     by

     Note that apt-get now installs recommended packages as default and is,
     for its robustness, the preferred program for package management from
     console to perform system installation and major system upgrades to
     releases posterior to Lenny.


--
Pierre Frenkiel