Re: [XBL] Editorial: "Either"

Hi-

Arthur Barstow wrote:
> 
> On Jan 8, 2007, at 5:11 PM, ext Ian Hickson wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Doug Schepers wrote:
>>>
>>> This sentence is grammatically incorrect and confusing: ...
>>> "Either" applies only to 2 alternatives, not several.  The reader is
>>> left wondering how to group the "2" alternatives.
>>
>> The American Heritage dictionary seems to disagree with you. ...
> 
> Seems like just removing "either" would be sufficient.

Yup, but I'm not going to push the issue.

Reading through the spec, I found the subject matter confusing enough, 
and I'm actually pretty familiar with it.  I didn't want users to have 
to additionally struggle with the prose, so I started sending in 
editorial observations (but was quickly overwhelmed :).  Possibly Ian's 
writing style just doesn't work for my brain.  YMMV.

But I think that getting the technology defined (at which Ian's done a 
good job), progressed along the rec track, and into browsers quickly is 
more important than making it a nice read.  The primer can inform 
authors, and implementers are masochistic enough that they can take the 
punishment.  (To be fair, if I wrote it with my verbose writing style, 
the spec would probably be twice as long and half again as confusing.)

-- 

Regards-
-Doug

Research and Standards Engineer
6th Sense Analytics
www.6thsenseanalytics.com
mobile: 919.824.5482

Received on Wednesday, 10 January 2007 08:15:01 UTC