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Date:      Tue, 4 Dec 2001 18:55:19 -0500
From:      Michael Lucas <mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org>
To:        "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net>
Cc:        doc@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: request for review on patch
Message-ID:  <20011204185519.A95107@blackhelicopters.org>
In-Reply-To: <wyadwylrb8.dwy@localhost.localdomain>; from swear@blarg.net on Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 11:26:51AM -0800
References:  <20011204073549.A91381@blackhelicopters.org> <wyadwylrb8.dwy@localhost.localdomain>

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On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 11:26:51AM -0800, Gary W. Swearingen wrote:
> 
> Bottom line:  The patch seems harmless.

OK, thanks.

I think what we have here is a slightly different perspective on
things.  Most good professional writers (which is, sadly, a small
subset of professional writers), prefer to be as explicit and exact as
possible.

> > 2) Plural "goals", but only one goal listed.  The patch changes this
> > to the singular, rather than creating another goal for the Project to
> > work forwards.
> 
> > !           <para>The goal of the FreeBSD Project is to provide software
> >               that may be used for any purpose and without strings attached.
> 
> Again, we have omitted words (after "and").  There are two goals:

Yes, but that's diff -c.  No selective editing intended.  :)

This is one goal, with two aspects.  Although I will happily concede
that this topic has caused no amount of bloodshed on
alt.flame.english-usage.

> But this is a FAQ where there should be a high tolerance for such things.

Well, yes and no.

Some documentation is unquestionably better than no documentation.
But I'd far rather see the documentation be exact, precise, and
correct.  The OS is high-quality professional-grade code written by
professional coders, I'd like to see the documentation be of similar
quality whenever possible.

> P.S.  The following is OT in regards this patch, but the second goal above
> is not true.  People who put copyright claims on software, even when they
> offer a very liberal license, don't have a goal of providing the
> software without strings.  Just few strings.  I do hate to see us making
> extravagant, strictly untrue claims like that project with more strigns.

This is certainly a legitimate thought.  I'll edit the patch and
submit it here for review.

-- 
Michael Lucas
mwlucas@FreeBSD.org, mwlucas@blackhelicopters.org
http://www.blackhelicopters.org/~mwlucas/
Big Scary Daemons: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/q/Big_Scary_Daemons

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