Changes between Version 11 and Version 12 of MessageStandardization

Timestamp:

Aug 2, 2009, 5:00:12 AM (15 years ago)

Author:

martinl

Comment:

--

MessageStandardization

@@ -50 +50 @@
 
  * First letter should be capitalized
- * Use the present tense
+ * Use the present tense[[BR]]
  (cannot instead of could not; '''better: unable to'''; even better: avoid the issue altogether by rewording like "File not found.")
  * Avoid contractions (cannot instead of can't)
- * Good sentence construction
-  ("Cannot find input map <%s>" instead of "It could not be find input map <%s>"; possibly better: "Input map <%s> not found.")
- * Be consistent with periods. Either end all phrases with a period or none. Without periods the translators save also some time
-  Complete sentences or all parts of a message with multiple sentences should end with periods. Short phrases should not. Punctuated events, such as errors, deserve a period. e.g. ''"Operation complete."'' Phrases which imply ongoing action look odd if missing an ellipse or any other form of punctuation.  Phrase != Sentence. --HB
+ * Good sentence construction[[BR]]
+ ("Cannot find input map <%s>" instead of "It could not be find input map <%s>"; possibly better: "Input map <%s> not found.")
+ * Be consistent with periods. Either end all phrases with a period or none. Without periods the translators save also some time[[BR]]
+ Complete sentences or all parts of a message with multiple sentences should end with periods. Short phrases should not. Punctuated events, such as errors, deserve a period. e.g. ''"Operation complete."'' Phrases which imply ongoing action look odd if missing an ellipse or any other form of punctuation.  Phrase != Sentence. --HB
  * Either all '''module''' descriptions should end with periods or not. As some are multi-sentence, and thus should end in a period for consistency within the message, so probably they all should end in one. Currently by my count 237 end with '.', 139 do not. In the multi-sentence case it may be posible to put the simple description in the module->label field and additional explanitory text into the ->description field.
  * '''option''' and '''flag''' descriptions generally should not end in a period (more likely to be phrases than sentences). But they can suffer the same multi-sentence period problem as module descriptions. In this case splitting out additional text into a ->label, ->description split may help.
- * Suspension points used to indicate some process is being done should be placed next to last word, without space. e.g. "Reading map..." instead of "Reading map ..."
- --HB: FWIW & my 2c, 1) to me keeping the space before the ellipse looks better, is this a purely cosmetic choice or is there some style logic? [wikipedia article on the ellipse was cited on grass-dev, I would argue that refers to printed typeset text not monospace terminal text, strangely suggests punctuation+3 dots (....), is just one other guy's opinion, and I'm still not swayed]  2) these messages may be good candidates for G_verbose_message().
+ * Suspension points used to indicate some process is being done should be placed next to last word, without space. e.g. "Reading map..." instead of "Reading map ..."[[BR]]
+ --HB: FWIW & my 2c, 1) to me keeping the space before the ellipse looks better, is this a purely cosmetic choice or is there some style logic? [wikipedia article on the ellipse was cited on grass-dev, I would argue that refers to printed typeset text not monospace terminal text, strangely suggests punctuation+3 dots (....), is just one other guy's opinion, and I'm still not swayed]  2) these messages may be good candidates for G_verbose_message().[[BR]]
  -- HB 2c more: (i.landsat.rgb example)
+{{{
   Processing <$i>...
  
   Processing <$i> ...
+}}}
   The version with the space just looks better. The version without just looks wrong.
   But when the line ends with a word, no-space doesn't look that bad: (v.in.ascii)
+{{{
   Importing points...
  
   Importing points ...
+}}}
  * Module descriptions should use all the same verbal tense. Currently some of them can be found in infinitive and others in present.