Re: upgrade to Wheezy fails with aptitude
On 20120401_204502, Pierre Frenkiel wrote:
> 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.
^^^^^^^^^
The better English word to use here is 'prior', which means earlier in
time rather than the backside of, I think. American English is my
first language and the only natural language in which I have any
facility, but Debian is international with much of the documentation
available only in English. That documentation should be understandable
to persons who only understand English with the continual help of an
English to language X dictionary or with the help of a friend who speaks
English but has no understanding of computers.
Please do sweat the details of wording.
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
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