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Posted to dev@subversion.apache.org by Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz <gr...@titanium.sabren.com> on 2004/09/20 19:21:06 UTC
[PATCH] Book quote clarification.
Clarified quote to the computer-literate yet programming-illiterate
audience of the book.
Index: doc/book/book/ch00.xml
===================================================================
--- doc/book/book/ch00.xml (revision 11055)
+++ doc/book/book/ch00.xml (working copy)
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
<simplesect>
<blockquote>
- <para><quote>If C gives you enough rope to hang yourself, think
- of Subversion as a sort of rope storage facility.</quote>
+ <para><quote>If [the] C [programming language] gives you
+ enough rope to hang yourself, think of Subversion as a sort
+ of rope storage facility.</quote>
—Brian W. Fitzpatrick</para>
</blockquote>
--
Please don't send me private copies of your public answers. Thanks.
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Re: [PATCH] Book quote clarification.
Posted by "Brian W. Fitzpatrick" <fi...@collab.net>.
`On Mon, 2004-09-20 at 14:21, Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz wrote:
> Clarified quote to the computer-literate yet programming-illiterate
> audience of the book.
>
> Index: doc/book/book/ch00.xml
> ===================================================================
> --- doc/book/book/ch00.xml (revision 11055)
> +++ doc/book/book/ch00.xml (working copy)
> @@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
> <simplesect>
>
> <blockquote>
> - <para><quote>If C gives you enough rope to hang yourself, think
> - of Subversion as a sort of rope storage facility.</quote>
> + <para><quote>If [the] C [programming language] gives you
> + enough rope to hang yourself, think of Subversion as a sort
> + of rope storage facility.</quote>
> —Brian W. Fitzpatrick</para>
> </blockquote>
Thanks for the thought, but I'm not going to apply this patch. I don't
think it's worth it to kludge up the quote with the explanation so that
non-programmers can understand the reference (considering that they're
not likely to understand why C gives you enough rope to hang yourself if
they don't know what C is in the first place).
-Fitz
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Re: [PATCH] Book quote clarification.
Posted by "Eric S. Raymond" <es...@thyrsus.com>.
Max Bowsher <ma...@ukf.net>:
> It's a humourous quote. If you don't know what C is, then you won't get the
> joke anyway. And the added formality detracts from the humour for those who
> do know what C is.
I have to agree with Max here, but also to note that Grzegorz was not
exactly wrong in wanting to correct the quote. I've noticed that the
kind of high-context ironic ellipsis Max is describing is a style people
who are not native English speakers often have trouble grokking. IMHO this
snippet should be left as is, but with awareness that it doesn't travel well.
--
<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
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Re: [PATCH] Book quote clarification.
Posted by Max Bowsher <ma...@ukf.net>.
Grzegorz Adam Hankiewicz wrote:
> Clarified quote to the computer-literate yet programming-illiterate
> audience of the book.
>
> Index: doc/book/book/ch00.xml
> ===================================================================
> --- doc/book/book/ch00.xml (revision 11055)
> +++ doc/book/book/ch00.xml (working copy)
> @@ -4,8 +4,9 @@
> <simplesect>
>
> <blockquote>
> - <para><quote>If C gives you enough rope to hang yourself, think
> - of Subversion as a sort of rope storage facility.</quote>
> + <para><quote>If [the] C [programming language] gives you
> + enough rope to hang yourself, think of Subversion as a sort
> + of rope storage facility.</quote>
> —Brian W. Fitzpatrick</para>
> </blockquote>
It's a humourous quote. If you don't know what C is, then you won't get the
joke anyway. And the added formality detracts from the humour for those who
do know what C is.
Max.
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