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Subject: Re: [virtio-dev] Re: [virtio] [PATCH] intro: add advice on transition from legacy interfaces


On Thu, 2015-07-02 at 15:04 +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> 
> On 02/07/2015 13:17, James Bottomley wrote:
> >> > I prefer Michael's version for this sentence.  English strongly prefers
> >> > simpler sentences, or so I was explained by native speakers.  This is
> >> > unlike Italian, and my high school experience dealing with Kant suggests
> >> > that German is similar. :)
> > That's not true at all ... English prose strongly prefers complex
> > sentences with subclauses to get nuanced descriptions; the heyday of
> > this was the 18-19 century: Dickens and Jane Austen have sentences that
> > go on for pages. That said, this is a specification, not a novel, so
> > specs like clarity and simplicity (in any language).
> 
> I wish this was the case for the few Italian technical documents I've
> had the pleasure to read. :)

I was expounding the ideal not the sad reality ...

> > I'd still say
> > 
> >         In this case the reader might like to focus on sections tagged
> >         "Legacy Interface" in the section title which highlight the
> >         changes made since these earlier drafts.
> >         
> > Because it's a single thought unit.  Sentence structure should follow
> > the layout of the ideas.
> 
> I think this last paragraph is interesting.  You didn't write "Because
> it's a single thought unit, and sentence structure should follow the
> layout of the ideas".

Actually those are two separate thought units.  I could make the second
sentence a subclause of the first if I wanted to because it could be
made an expansion of the previous though unit; however, it also stands
on its own as a statement, hence the new sentence (but either way is
correct). The comma before the conjunction, by the way, is illegal in
English but acceptable in American.

> But after all this is bikeshedding, and we all know...

It should be red.

James


> Paolo
> 
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