From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 10 08:13:00 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C6FC516A4CE for ; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:13:00 +0000 (GMT) Received: from gandalf.online.bg (gandalf.online.bg [217.75.128.9]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3BFB343D53 for ; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:12:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from roam@ringlet.net) Received: (qmail 17565 invoked from network); 10 Sep 2004 08:10:51 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO straylight.m.ringlet.net) (217.75.134.254) by gandalf.online.bg with SMTP; 10 Sep 2004 08:10:51 -0000 Received: (qmail 40189 invoked by uid 1000); 10 Sep 2004 08:13:24 -0000 Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:13:24 +0300 From: Peter Pentchev To: John Baldwin Message-ID: <20040910081323.GB2296@straylight.m.ringlet.net> Mail-Followup-To: John Baldwin , freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org, Ceri Davies References: <20040908201737.GG44674@submonkey.net> <20040908182322.L1034@wonkity.com> <20040909075121.GJ44674@submonkey.net> <200409091047.25148.jhb@FreeBSD.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="H1spWtNR+x+ondvy" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200409091047.25148.jhb@FreeBSD.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i cc: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org cc: Ceri Davies Subject: Re: i.e. vs. e.g. X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:13:00 -0000 --H1spWtNR+x+ondvy Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, Sep 09, 2004 at 10:47:24AM -0400, John Baldwin wrote: > On Thursday 09 September 2004 03:51 am, Ceri Davies wrote: > > On Wed, Sep 08, 2004 at 06:27:13PM -0600, Warren Block wrote: > > > On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Ceri Davies wrote: > > > >Apologies in advance for coming over all schoolmaster like, but I've > > > >noticed a few instances where I believe that people are confusing the > > > >terms "i.e." and "e.g.", and so here's a little reminder/summary: > > > > > > > > i.e. can be read as "that is to say". > > > > > > > > e.g. can be read as "for example". > > > > > > The FDP says to avoid contractions. Maybe these should be avoided in > > > the same way. > > > > I think that would be overkill, and if we stopped doing things that we > > did wrong occasionally then there wouldn't be much of FreeBSD left ;-) > > > > I was "just saying" really. >=20 > The reason for avoiding contractions though is to avoid confusing non-nat= ive=20 > readers, and I think that that's a good argument for spelling out i.e. as= =20 > "that is", and e.g. as "for example" as well unless this type of idiom is= =20 > common to more than just English. I have a gut feeling that pretty much all languages probably have "predefined", often-used contractions for "that is" and "for example"; I can certainly vouch for Bulgarian and Russian. Also, at least "e.g." is very widely used in virtually all grammar textbooks and dictionaries, so we can safely assume that non-native speakers ought to know what it stands for :) Thus, expanding those two or even avoiding their use in newly-written documentation could be kind of overkill IMHO, even though I heartily agree with Ceri that misusing them can lead to confuzzlement on part of the reader. G'luck, Peter --=20 Peter Pentchev roam@ringlet.net roam@cnsys.bg roam@FreeBSD.org PGP key: http://people.FreeBSD.org/~roam/roam.key.asc Key fingerprint FDBA FD79 C26F 3C51 C95E DF9E ED18 B68D 1619 4553 If I had finished this sentence, --H1spWtNR+x+ondvy Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFBQWIj7Ri2jRYZRVMRAgvjAJ9fUsiymmyQeL88nlYQEKqnX0b24ACfVERp OoNaxUZI1qpfzs/+3gjV1hc= =NZv4 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --H1spWtNR+x+ondvy--