bug#56799: (gnu services configuration) usage of *unspecified* is problematic

[Attila Lendvai <attila@lendvai.name>]

> > would you be fine if we renamed MAYBE-VALUE-SET? to UNSET-VALUE?
>
>
> unset-value? sounds like an action; so I'd name it 'maybe-value-unset?';
> but as I wrote above I don't really see the benefit/like the idea.


it's always funny when two non-native speakers (?) argue about english... :) maybe we should invite one into the conversation?

with that in mind: UNSET-VALUE? certainly doesn't look like an action to me due to the question mark at the end. if we want to clearly disambiguate this, then we should insert 'is' somewhere, e.g. IS-UNSET-VALUE? which is a short version of IS-IT-THE-UNSET-VALUE?, i.e. it is not a shorthand for IS-THIS-VALUE-UNSET?, because only places can be in the state of not set.

does this clarify my perspective?

it's not crucial, though. i can work my way through the changes without renaming this, but it'll be public API, so it's better to have something intuitive and non-misleading published at the earliest possible iteration.

--
• attila lendvai
• PGP: 963F 5D5F 45C7 DFCD 0A39
--
“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
	— Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)