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Subject:Re: Re[2]: E-Primer From:Mike Pope <mikep -at- ASYMETRIX -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 10 May 1994 10:58:00 PDT
>With respect to another of the major impetuses of E-prime, the
writer/speaker
>attempts to avoid presumption. So, the "The program window is now
displayed"
>message will certainly seem false to the reader when the program hiccups,
for
>example, and the window does not in fact "become displayed." Though
tedious, a
>less presumptuous alternative would be something like "If conditions x, y,
z,
>etc. hold and the program functions properly, you will see the program
>window."
I note bemusedly that this type of if-all-conditions-obtain qualification
leads
to sentences such as "The program window should appear". While "correct" and
respectful of the troubles that software is heir to, I can't help but think
that the timid user, when encountering documentation that sounds
similarly unconvinced about what might happen next, is not likely to
proceed with confidence.
