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Subject:Re: Don't "Should" on Me! From:Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 6 Jun 1994 13:11:04 CDT
Dan Dieterich responds to my examples:
|} And when he writes "Valid substitution symbols must begin
|} with a letter," he does so hoping that his sophisticated readers will
|} translate that into "Begin each substitution symbol with a letter." If they
|} don't make that translation, then his comment about substitution symbols is
|} worthless, since it's a statement of fact--not an instruction.
Actually, your comment is quite true, I don't write many instructions in
my line of work. I state a lot of facts and insist that my readers draw
inferences because I don't presume to tell them how to program.
Lets see if I can dig up an actual series of instructions.
`` 1) Mount the tape on your tape drive.
2) Verify that the directory you are in is the one you wish to
store the tools in.
3) Enter the tar command for your system.''
By gosh, Dan, I don't use auxilliary verbs in instructions, do I? Oops!
Consider me suitably chastised. I must have been agreeing with you all
along. I hate when that happens!
_______________ _____
/ ___ __/__\ \ / / _\ Steve Fouts
/___ \| | ___\ | / __\ sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
/ / \ | \ / \
/_______/__|_______\_/________\ "These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper,
but _minds_ alive on the shelves." -- Gilbert Highet
