Paul Smith <[email protected]> reply-to [email protected] to ali hagigat <[email protected]> cc [email protected] date Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 9:17 AM subject Re: intermediate files >> > This is a frequently used English idiom. "Leave something alone" >> > means not to touch it in any way. In this case, it means Make will >> > not try to create B if it is an intermediate file that does not exist. >> but the manual is saying: >> "...then make can leave well enough alone." >> You mentioned that, leave something alone is an idiom in English but >> where is "something" here? > > http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/leave+well+enough+alone >
Now the sentence, "then make can leave well enough alone" made sense. It was an idiom, "leave well enough alone" returns to something which has been mentioned earlier...It means b in the manual. But it was really hard to understand. I was looking for "something" some where between "leave well enough alone" words and was guessing the manual may have some misprint!... "...It won’t bother updating b..." I think it means it will not spend energy to update b. For a non English speaker newbie who is reading the manual, he is much interested to know what make will do at last, waiting for the word after "will", but when he sees "bother", all his energy is wasted! It is not the final action that make will do at last. It is just a fun with a reader to say that make will not spend energy! The critical moment is the moment that one is waiting for an action word after "will"....Sorry to take up your time Paul , it may not worth talking about this further and please forgive me. (I thought it might help). _______________________________________________ Help-make mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/help-make
