[MPlayer-DOCS] CVS: main/DOCS/man/en mplayer.1,1.1052,1.1053

[The Wanderer]

Diego Biurrun wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 04:44:48AM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> 
>> Diego Biurrun CVS wrote:
>> 
>>> -some basic debug infos, avi header, function values (init debug)
>>> +some basic debug info, AVI header, function values (init debug)
>>> .IPs \-v\ \-v
>>> -print avi indexes, chunk inputs, more debug infos (player debug)
>>> +Print AVI indexes, chunk inputs, more debug info (player debug).
>> 
>> Although this is the form which will be more readily recognized -
>> especially by non-native speakers - and it is not in fact
>> incorrect, the more correct plural of "index" is "indices". (See
>> parallel with "vertex" and "vertices", "vortex" and "vortices",
>> "helix" and "helices", and a total of about three others in the
>> entire English language.) It might not be worth changing, in light
>> of the correct form's comparative obscurity, but I wanted to point
>> the fact out anyway.
> 
> It's also like this in German, my first intuition was indices, but I 
> thought both were possible in English.

...they might be. I think that "indexes" is not exactly *incorrect*, but
it is not *as* *formally* correct as "indices" is. At bottom, I simply
prefer the latter form, but I'm well aware that not everyone has my
vocabulary.

>>>-prints everything related to input parsers (parser debug)
>>>+Prints everything related to input parsers (parser debug).
>> 
>> Inconsistency between this line and the previous one: "print" vs.
>> "prints". I'm not sure which one would be better, but I think that
>> whichever tense of the verb is settled on should also be prepended
>> to the other two lines, above.
> 
> Yes, I'm not sure which form to settle for either, both are used
> throughout the man page.  Some consistency would be nice...

I'll add it to my list of "things to get to" (which tends to grow slowly
and shrink rarely)...

As to which would be better: that depends largely on which - I think the
technical term is "mood" - you want to write in for the man page. The
choice is between "Use this in order to tell MPlayer 'print ...'" and
"This does print ...". If you want to present the options as commands,
as if MPlayer were a person taking orders, then "print" is what you
want; if you want to simply describe what each option does, then
"prints" would be the correct choice.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.