Re: GNU make man page typo
On 2 Sep 2021, at 06:40, Zach Petch wrote:
The second paragraph under DESCRIPTION reads,
> To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the makefile that
> describes the relationships among files in your program, and the states the
> commands for updating each file.
The same text was previously in make.texi but was updated (rather
astonishingly) 30 years ago in 45fa41f:
To prepare to use @code{make}, you must write a file called
the @dfn{makefile} that describes the relationships among files
-in your program, and the states the commands for updating each file.
+in your program and provides commands for updating each file.
John
Re: GNU make man page typo
On Thu, Sep 2, 2021 at 5:07 AM Zach Petch wrote:
> This is minor in the grand scheme of things, but I noticed a typo in the
> man page for GNU make. In case it makes a difference, I was on a Mac
> running macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 when I came across the typo.
>
> The second paragraph under DESCRIPTION reads,
>
> > To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the makefile that
> describes the relationships among files in your program, and the states the
> commands for updating each file.
>
> It appears that the first use of "the" after the second comma should
> either be "then" or quite possibly should simply not exist at all. That
> portion of the sentence would then read either,
>
> > and then states the commands for updating each file
>
> or,
>
> > and states the commands for updating each file
>
> and would, at the very least, reduce the likelihood of people like myself
> (who need to read slowly and carefully to understand things like man pages)
> from getting temporarily tripped up by the wording of that line.
>
> I recognize that this is minor and somewhat pedantic, but I appreciate you
> taking the time to read this.
>
I'm pretty sure that it was a typo/thinko for "that states", making the
full sentence:
To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the makefile that
describes the relationships among files in your program and that states the
commands for updating each file.
I also think the second comma is incorrect ("comma splice") and suggest
removing it as seen above: even the 'Oxford comma' rule only applies to
lists of three or more items.
Philip Guenther
GNU make man page typo
Hi there, This is minor in the grand scheme of things, but I noticed a typo in the man page for GNU make. In case it makes a difference, I was on a Mac running macOS Big Sur 11.5.2 when I came across the typo. The second paragraph under DESCRIPTION reads, > To prepare to use make, you must write a file called the makefile that describes the relationships among files in your program, and the states the commands for updating each file. It appears that the first use of "the" after the second comma should either be "then" or quite possibly should simply not exist at all. That portion of the sentence would then read either, > and then states the commands for updating each file or, > and states the commands for updating each file and would, at the very least, reduce the likelihood of people like myself (who need to read slowly and carefully to understand things like man pages) from getting temporarily tripped up by the wording of that line. I recognize that this is minor and somewhat pedantic, but I appreciate you taking the time to read this. Zach Petch P.S. Even if this request never amounts to anything, I want to say thank you for all you do. I sincerely appreciate it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
