[MPlayer-DOCS] [RFC] Binary packaging guidelines

[Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski]

On Thursday, 18 November 2004 at 16:28, Josh Varner wrote:
> On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:53:28 -0500, The Wanderer
> <inverseparadox at comcast.net> wrote:
> > Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > On Wednesday, 17 November 2004 at 20:02, The Wanderer wrote:
> > >
> > >>Dominik 'Rathann' Mierzejewski wrote:
> > >>
> > >>>About this document
> > >>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > >>> With the release of MPlayer 0.90pre9 all licensing issues have
> > >>> been eliminated and all code is licensed under the GPL. This
> > >>> allows creating and distributing binary packages.
> > >>
[...]
> The awkwardness of this sentence comes from the indefinite subject. If
> the sentence read "Mplayer allows creating and distributing packages"
> it would sound more natural.

Right, although it should rather be "MPlayer's license allows creating and
distributing packages."

> The lack of a concrete subject lends the
> sentence to the use of nominalization because a nominalization means
> "the act or action of doing x." Since this is an action without any
> particular actor it fits with the indefinite subject, while the gerund
> form feels odd without a concrete actor. Even the form with a subject
> is not the best since Mplayer is allowing someone else to create and
> distribute, again leading to nominalization as the second actor is
> unspecified.

Thanks for the explanation. I've rephrased it like this:

"With the release of MPlayer 0.90pre9, all licensing issues have been
eliminated and all code is licensed under the GPL, which allows
independent packagers to create and distribute binary packages."

R.

-- 
MPlayer RPMs maintainer: http://greysector.rangers.eu.org/mplayer/
"I am Grey. I stand between the candle and the star. We are Grey.
 We stand between the darkness ... and the light."
        -- Delenn in Grey Council in Babylon 5:"Babylon Squared"