minor style suggestion in files.texi

minor style suggestion in files.texi

[Robert J. Chassell]

In spoken English, the phrase `used to' has two different meanings:

  * how an item is used, and

  * that a person is accustomed.

In my experience -- this applies primarily to people for whom English
is a poorly understood second or third language, read rather than
spoken -- readers are more likely to presume the first meaning of the
phrase `used to', how an item is used, than the second, that a person
is accustomed.

Thus, we find the first meaning in   emacs/doc/emacs/emacs.texi

    Dired's @kbd{.} (Period) command can also be used to delete old versions.

as well as the second meaning in the same file in

    If you are used to earlier versions of VC ...

I would rewrite that conditional to

    If you are accustomed to earlier versions of VC ...

In the same file, I would change
    VC-mode commands used to operate on only one file ...
to
    VC-mode commands once operated on only one file ...

Others' experience and sense may be different; this is a suggestion.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                          GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    bob@rattlesnake.com                         bob@gnu.org
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc