It's easy to miss. The author probably thought it sounded right (which
being an idiom aside, it did). The editor probably didn't think anything
of it, because they understood what was meant. And the proof-readers
probably thought the same thing.
In other words, while it should have been avoided, it's a "no harm, no
foul" type of thing. And this also serves to show that even if it's
missed most of the way through, it will get caught eventually (most
likely in the translation phase).
Have a great day.:)
Patrick.
On Tue, 2013-05-28 at 23:52 +0100, Tony Pursell wrote:
On 28 May 2013 23:12, Craig Hrabal <crhrabal@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 05/28/2013 04:28 PM, Kevin Godby wrote:
Hello, Hannie.
On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 8:42 AM, Hannie Dumoleyn
<lafeber-dumoleyn2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
There is no need to adjust English language
expressions so that non-native
speakers understand. It is my duty as a
translator to find out what a less
common expression means. I already felt stupid
that I sent this question to
the mailing list.
Actually, we should try to avoid idioms in the English
manual because
the manual hasn't been translated to all languages
yet. If the manual
hasn't been translated to a person's native language
yet but they
speak a little English, they should still be able to
read our manual.
Avoiding idioms not only helps the translators but the
large number of
non-native English speakers.
—Kevin
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I would have to agree. Expressions like that aren't too far
off from slang, and therefore only serve to confuse people.
Phrases and expressions like this should be avoided, as there
is no clear way to translate the expression into another
language. The fact that you had to ask what a simple phrase
meant sort of proves why it shouldn't be written in that way.
When someone is trying to get help using Ubuntu, language
barriers shouldn't be a source of difficulty for readers.
I entirely agree with Kevin and Craig's remarks. It is exactly what I
had in mind in my reply to Hannie (which should have gone to the list
- apologies for that). There is even several distinct forms of
English to consider. It is possible for me, as a UK English speaker,
to use idioms that sound odd to US English speakers, even if they do
understand them. So our aim should be always to use plain,
straightforward English that can be understood by native and
non-native English speakers. I have made a few edits along these
lines, but I have to confess to missing the expression that Hannie
queried.
Tony
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