Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 09:13:10 +0200 From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk> To: jak@cetlink.net (John Kelly) Cc: Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au>, "Dag-Erling C. Sm\xf8rgrav" <des@FreeBSD.ORG>, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-sys@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Correct English style Message-ID: <9104.892883590@critter.freebsd.dk> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 18 Apr 1998 04:56:28 GMT." <35382ed1.10137219@mail.cetlink.net>
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In message <35382ed1.10137219@mail.cetlink.net>, John Kelly writes: >On Sat, 18 Apr 1998 12:11:20 +0800, Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au> >wrote: > >>I don't call this "fixing typos", as far as I can tell, >>most of these changes have broken the correct usage. > >The changes are correct. > >>eg: here, we are talking about the device's softc: > >>- * return the pointer to it's softc structure >>+ * return the pointer to its softc structure > >An apostrophe is used to indicate the possessive case (as in Peter's >computer) except in the special case of the word "its." In this >special case, it's (with the apostrophe) is a contraction of "it is" >while its (without the apostrophe) is the possessive adjective. The >committer is correct. Consult a dictionary or manual of style. Search /usr/src/games/fortune/datfiles/fortunes for Tips for Writer's for some good introductory material to current usage :-) -- Poul-Henning Kamp FreeBSD coreteam member phk@FreeBSD.ORG "Real hackers run -current on their laptop." "Drink MONO-tonic, it goes down but it will NEVER come back up!" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message
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