emacs-devel
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

RE: Word usage


From: Drew Adams
Subject: RE: Word usage
Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:36:31 -0800

> In color.el, the doc strings frequently say something like
> "must be between [0,1]."
> 
> That is bad English.  Either you write "must be between 0 and 1
> inclusively." (which is less techno-babble), or you write "must be in
> [0,1]".  But a value can't be "between" an interval.  That is
> nonsensical.

And Emacs doc should definitely use the former, not the latter.  We should not
suppose that Emacs users are familiar with math notation beyond the most basic
(e.g. arithmetic or algebra).  There is no reason to expect general users to be
familiar with interval notation.

Another clear alternative for such a statement is "N, where 0 <= N <= 1".
Another is "N, where (and (<= 0 N) (<= N 1))", which speaks Emacs Lisp.




reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]