Re: [Geiser-users] Minor spelling/grammar errors in Geiser's documentation

[Jose A. Ortega Ruiz]

On Fri, Jan 07 2011, Mark Harig wrote:

>> The use of lowercase "i" is intended: as a matter of style (and 
> despite
>> i know it's orthographically wrong), i prefer to refer to myself 
> using a
>> lowercase "i" (except at the beginning of a sentence, where i 
> capitalize
>>it just as any other word). Silly, i know, but i'm keeping it :)
>
>> I'm also keeping the UK spelling for words such as "initialise" or
>> "favourite".
>
> OK.  I didn't make a decision here other than to use what ispell
> recommended.  The goal is to get ispell to find as few errors as
> possible (it's impossible to get rid of all spelling errors in a
> document that contains non-standard words such as "Elisp").  Is the UK
> spelling of "initialise" consistent, that is, is "initialization" also
> spelled "initialisation" (as in "Emacs initialization files")?

Yes. I've fixed the only use of "initialization" i've found.


[...]

>> "lookup" means "the act of _electronic_ information retrieval", which
>> seems the right term here.
>
> Whenever possible, I went with a standard English.  ispell doesn't
> recognize the word "lookup."  Likewise, people commonly say "a
> printout", when "a printed copy" would be more standard (less jargon
> to learn).

Weeell, the definition above is from the Oxford English Dictionary, so
i'd argue that it counts as "standard English".

Related to that, i've maintained "metadata" (in lieu of your suggested
meta-data) since it also appears in the OED and i like it better.

>>> -Emacs initialization files (as a rule, all knobs in Geiser are 
> turnable
>>> +Emacs initialization files (as a rule, all knobs in Geiser are 
> tunable
>
>> i have a doubt here: a knob is usually a physical thing that you can
>> "turn" rather that "tune", no?
>
> 1) ispell flags "turnable" as a spelling error.  Perhaps it's like
> "click-able"?
>
> 2) In numerous places throughout the Geiser documentation, you refer
> to options as being "tuned", for example, "...a couple of options to
> fine tune..." and "...the REPL can be fine-tuned via..."  Using
> "tunable" is in keeping with those descriptions.  And when turning
> knobs on devices to change settings, it is common to say that you are
> tuning to a preferred setting.

Fair enough. I'm using "tunable" now.

>>> -prompted for a host and a port, defaulting to localhost and 37146. 
> You
>>> +prompted for a host and a port, defaulting to ``localhost'' and 
> 37146. You
>>>  can change those defaults customizing 
> @code{geiser-repl-default-host}
>>> -and @code{geiser-repl-default-port}, respectfully.
>>> +and @code{geiser-repl-default-port}, respectively.
>
>> This was a silly joke of mine... ok, ok :)
>
> OK.  This is tricky in reference material because people do not know
> when it is intended and when it is an error.

Yeah. I'm using respectively now.

>> Apart from the above nits, i'm applying all the other changes shortly,
>> and i'd like to add your name to the THANKS file if that's OK with 
> you,
>> Mark. I'll also add a section somewhere mentioning that this is the
>> right place to contact The Geiserati.
>
> It's not necessary to mention my name.  I would rather take credit
> when I have added some feature to the code or documentation.

As you wish. I'll be very glad to give you credit then.

> I have a few other small notes about the documentation.  Stay
> tuned. :)

Cannot wait :)

Thanks a lot!

jao
-- 
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but
saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
 -Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)