Re: UPDATING readability

On Sat, 16 Oct 2004, David Syphers wrote:

DS>On Saturday 16 October 2004 01:53 am, Matteo Riondato wrote:
DS>> Could we change an entry from:
DS>>
DS>> 20041007:
DS>>         One of the syscalls the 1:1 threading library libthr uses has
DS>>         changed, thus breaking ABI compatibility. Make sure you  rebuild
DS>> this library with the kernel.
DS>>
DS>> to:
DS>>
DS>> 20041007:
DS>>         One of the syscalls used by the 1:1 threading library libthr
DS>>  has changed, thus breaking ABI compatibility. Make sure you  rebuild
DS>> this library with the kernel.
DS>>
DS>> I think this will improve the readability and the comprension of the
DS>> entry by the non-native english speakers.
DS>
DS>I hate to be pedantic, but the original entry is preferable. In English it is 
DS>correct to avoid the passive voice when possible (though not nearly to the 
DS>extent that, say, French does). The active voice is quite appropriate here, 
DS>where the subject is clearly defined. Is there a particular reason why 
DS>non-native speakers would prefer the passive voice?

The verbs are coming very late in the sentence. That's not a problem for 
german speakers :-) but from experience I know that speakers from 
languages where the verb must come near the beginning of the sentence have 
a problem with this. The omission of the 'that' makes that even harder, 
because you can't parse the sentence into grammatical units until you see 
the 'uses' at the end of the line. That forces you to roll back and 
re-parse.

harti