I created this (https://github.com/coreutils/coreutils/pull/350) on
Github, but since email is preferred I'll replicate it here:
I'm translating coreutils for Japanese, and I noticed a line that I feel
needs improvement:
```
#: src/paste.c:457
#, fuzzy
#| msgid ""
#| "Write lines consisting of the sequentially corresponding lines from\n"
#| "each FILE, separated by TABs, to standard output.\n"
#| "The newline of every line except the last line from the last file\n"
#| "is replaced with a TAB.\n"
msgid ""
"Write lines consisting of the sequentially corresponding lines from\n"
"each FILE, separated by TABs, to standard output.\n"
"The newline of every line except the line from the last file\n"
"is replaced with a TAB.\n"
```
This entire text is quite obtuse from my reading. Might I suggest the
following instead:
```
Write lines consisting of corresponding lines from each file joined by
TABs to standard output.
```
With this, the newline behavior is implied by write lines, since lines
are already newline terminated unless specified otherwise generally. The
complex wording is encompassed by the joined wording. This should
simplify the wording quite a bit and make it more readable.
Let me know what you think.
Implementation diff below:
diff --git a/src/paste.c b/src/paste.c
index bcc0b6633..7d7c2ffa7 100644
--- a/src/paste.c
+++ b/src/paste.c
@@ -455,10 +455,8 @@ Usage: %s [OPTION]... [FILE]...\n\
"),
program_name);
fputs (_("\
-Write lines consisting of the sequentially corresponding lines from\n\
-each FILE, separated by TABs, to standard output.\n\
-The newline of every line except the line from the last file\n\
-is replaced with a TAB.\n\
+Write lines consisting of corresponding lines from each file \
+joined by TABs to standard output.\n\
"), stdout);
emit_stdin_note ();
