Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@×××.net>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-dev] Re: gentoo-x86 tree cleanup for 'DESCRIPTION ends with a '.' character' warnings
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 16:36:45
Message-Id: pan$81705$6628db6f$7dc5f4f6$a7267dba@cox.net
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] gentoo-x86 tree cleanup for 'DESCRIPTION ends with a '.' character' warnings by Tom Wijsman
1 Tom Wijsman posted on Wed, 13 Aug 2014 10:38:45 +0200 as excerpted:
2
3 >> I don't recall a policy mandating that descriptions can't end with '.'.
4 >> I asked our QA lead about it and was told that he didn't recall that we
5 >> have an official policy about it either. Also, the devmanual never
6 >> mentions any such requirement.
7 >
8 > It has been a common belief to drop '.' among some from what I've seen.
9
10 [Observational/skippable.]
11
12 FWIW, I've been watching this debate with some amusement, as I follow
13 Language Log, which has a continuing serious covering the generational/
14 regional differences in period/full-stop interpretation.
15
16 The first in the series and my favorite, due to the cartoon illustrating
17 the issue (Nov. 2012):
18
19 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4304
20
21 Two newer installations of the series (Nov 2013 and Aug 1, 2014,
22 respectively):
23
24 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8667
25 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=13723
26
27
28 It can be a big deal for some. Quoting from the first comment on the
29 first article (and noting that what we call a "period" US-English is a
30 "full stop" in UK-English):
31
32 Obviously, a period is a full stop, but, in short text messages, I feel
33 like it almost SAYS full stop, with all the attendant emphasis of that
34 phrase. "Best movie ever" is one thing, but "Best. Movie. Ever." is quite
35 another.
36
37
38 Back to gentoo and the current "Much ado about nothing". Someone's
39 irritated with the periods/full-stops following short descriptions,
40 because to him it's disruptive, almost as if an exclamation point (which
41 I /would/ find disruptive) was used, such that for him a repoman check is
42 warranted.
43
44 But to many others, it's trivial, certainly nothing worth bothering with
45 a repoman check and hundreds of individual fixes with concurrent changelog
46 entries.
47
48 --
49 Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
50 "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
51 and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman