Wolf Bergenheim to Anton Shepelev: > > > Without parameters BP puts ASCII character 07h into > > > stdout, causing a beep as long as the ANSI driver is > > > loaded. > > > > [...] the reference to the ANSI driver makes no sense: > > as long as what duration? > > From the Cambridge Dictionary > <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/as-long-as-and-so-long-as> > : > > As long as or so long as also means 'provided that', > 'providing that' or 'on condition that': You are allowed > to go as long as you let us know when you arrive. So long > as is a little more informal: You can borrow the car so > long as you don't drive too fast
Yes, of course -- this meaning hadn't occurred to me, probably because `as long as' sounds really /weird/ in that context, because implies a process in duration, rather than a precondition. This is a very fine nuance: <https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/as-long-as-versus-if.2276223/post-11426462> > Since you were confused, maybe others would also be > confused, so I replaced it with "provided that". I do not believe in simplifying your language because someone might be confused. I for one will be have even the richest and most complex expressions /as long as/ as their are good English (-: I would simply say `if /an/ ANSI driver is loaded' (there may exist more than one ANSI driver, right?) > > I wonder whether the effect of a command should be > > descirbed /before/ its syntax and parameters, so that > > the reader should understand the context of what he is > > reading. > > I thought about it, but ultimately the manual is for users > who want to know how to use a command rather than know > what it does, so I feel the syntax is more important. My point is not about the order of importence, but rather about the sequence of exposition. A good document is readable from to bottom, which means that all the context required to understand a passage must needs have been provided /above/ it, and declaring the purpose of a command prior to describing its parameters helps establish the context necessary for understanding. For example, look at man pages: <https://manned.org/man/mv> They all begin with a brief description of what a command of function does, and only then do they provide the syntax and delve into details. This is very good, time-honoured structure. P.S.: As one who writes and maintains some complicated .bat- files, I wish DOG were available for Windows, too. I am not into Powershell at all at all. _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
