From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: RE: Word usage Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:36:31 -0800 Message-ID: <0DD2CA23246747E0A66AA3DDBD4003E1@us.oracle.com> References: <8739qlokab.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1290962300 32707 80.91.229.12 (28 Nov 2010 16:38:20 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:38:20 +0000 (UTC) To: "'David Kastrup'" , Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Nov 28 17:38:16 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PMkGW-0006DN-1U for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:38:16 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:33063 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PMkGV-00021D-4C for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:38:15 -0500 Original-Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=43617 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PMkGQ-000217-IK for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:38:11 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PMkGP-0007Kt-93 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:38:10 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet10.oracle.com ([148.87.113.121]:22949) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1PMkGO-0007KY-VP; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:38:09 -0500 Original-Received: from rcsinet13.oracle.com (rcsinet13.oracle.com [148.87.113.125]) by rcsinet10.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id oASGc6Ee026473 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:38:07 GMT Original-Received: from acsmt355.oracle.com (acsmt355.oracle.com [141.146.40.155]) by rcsinet13.oracle.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.1) with ESMTP id oASFR7oD024590; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:38:06 GMT Original-Received: from abhmt015.oracle.com by acsmt355.oracle.com with ESMTP id 810331051290962202; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:36:42 -0800 Original-Received: from dradamslap1 (/10.159.220.140) by default (Oracle Beehive Gateway v4.0) with ESMTP ; Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:36:42 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 In-Reply-To: <8739qlokab.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5994 Thread-Index: AcuO4P93G9zLIDWzTE2aTuNTV8kndwAOGFpw X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:133202 Archived-At: > 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.