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Date:      Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:19:50 +0200
From:      Roman Neuhauser <neuhauser@sigpipe.cz>
To:        PJ <af.gourmet@videotron.ca>
Cc:        Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>, "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: I hate to bitch but bitch I must
Message-ID:  <20091017121950.GA54137@isis.sigpipe.cz>
In-Reply-To: <4AD9016E.20302@videotron.ca>
References:  <4AD8EB8F.9010900@videotron.ca> <20091017010758.088b8b8c.freebsd@edvax.de> <4AD9016E.20302@videotron.ca>

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On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 07:27:42PM -0400, PJ wrote:
> Polytropon wrote:
> > On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:54:23 -0400, PJ <af.gourmet@videotron.ca> wrote:
> >> but from man tunefs:
> >> BUGS
> >> This utility should work on active file systems.
> >> What in hades does this mean--just above it says cannot be run on active
> >> file systems. ???
> >>     
> >
> > It "should". This means: Don't try that. :-)
> >
> > My printer isn't printing!
> > But it should.
> > No, it is not printing!
> > Yes, but it should.
> > :-)
> >
> >   
> Aha! Gotcha! Whoever wrote that has made an unintentionnal booboo. It is
> a subtle difference and is indicative that whoever wrote it is not a
> native english user... the meaning is clearly "should be executed, done,
> carried out, performed" - should work means it  can be carried out  - I
> think the author meant to say "should not be done"

Dunno, maybe it's because E is my SL, but I fail to see the problem
here.  The meaning is clearly (SECTION BUGS, ffs) "The friggin program
should have a feature it's currently lacking."

That's not to say I haven't had my share of gripes with man pages,
it's just that if you ignore the man page structure and associated
meaning, you're in for trouble.  Just like with any message.

--
roman



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