Re: [PATCH] fix sum moar typos

Subject: Re: [PATCH] fix sum moar typos

Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:22:27 -0700

To: Pieter Praet, Notmuch Mail

Cc:

From: Carl Worth


On Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:14:21 +0200, Pieter Praet <pieter@praet.org> wrote:
> Various typo fixes in docs, docstrings, comments, etc...
> 
> Signed-off-by: Pieter Praet <pieter@praet.org>

Thanks for these fixes, Pieter!

I've pushed these all out now. I split the original commit up into 6
commits that each touch different kinds of text, (non-code text files,
comments within source files, error messages within source files, etc.)

The idea there is that these different kinds of text have different
potential impacts on the correctness of the code. So some release
manager might be willing to include one kind of change, but not another,
for example.

Also, it made things a bit easier to read. There were two incorrect typo
fixes in the original commit which I fixed:

> -    "\tSeveral notmuch commands accept a comman syntax for search\n"
> +    "\tSeveral notmuch commands accept a command syntax for search\n"

This is now "common syntax".

> -    # Remember stdout and stderr file descriptios and redirect test
> +    # Remember stdout and stderr file descriptions and redirect test

This is now "file descriptors".

And one change where I left the original text unchanged:

>   * A non-NULL return value is guaranteed to be a valid string pointer
>   * pointing to the characters "new/" or "cur/", (but not
> - * NUL-terminated).
> + * NULL-terminated).

This comment uses "NULL" to describe a NULL pointer and "NUL" to
describe the ASCII character '\0'. (I know that "NUL" is a really
annoying historically misspelled abbreviation, but it is in standard
usage I believe---see ASCII(7) for example.)

Meanwhile, I was almost tempted to leave this misspelling unchanged:

> -	 (error "%s is a file. Can't creat maildir." path))
> +	 (error "%s is a file. Can't create maildir." path))

Since that's also a classic historically misspelled abbreviation. ;-)

Oh, and let me just thank you for being so thorough! There were several
fixes you made that could obviously not be caught by an automated spell
checker:

> ---part=id", (David Edmonson wants to rewrite some of "notmuch show" to
> +--part=id", (David Edmondson wants to rewrite some of "notmuch show" to
...
>  (defun notmuch-user-other-email ()
> -  "Return the user.primary_email value (as a list) from the notmuch configuration."
> +  "Return the user.other_email value (as a list) from the notmuch configuration."
...
>  (defcustom notmuch-after-tag-hook nil
> -  "Hooks that are run before tags of a message are modified.
> +  "Hooks that are run after tags of a message are modified.
...
> -The debian packaging exists in the top-level "debian" directory within
> +The Debian packaging exists in the top-level "debian" directory within

Those all demonstrate a particular eye for detail—well done! For a
couple of those, I almost gave them their own commits.

In passing, let me point out the most amusing typo I saw in the patch:

> -} /* Appleasing Emacs */
> +} /* Appeasing Emacs */

I almost hate to see that go, because I like the pleasing portmanteau
sound of "appleasing". Please applease me and leave this pleasing typo?

Admittedly, that's not in code that's originally mine, so I can't say it
wasn't intentional either.

Finally, *many* of the typos and misspellings were originally mine. It's
certainly embarrassing to see so many (and so many repeats). It was also
embarrassing to see how many misspellings I committed while typing the
commit messages, (fortunately I rebased many away).

And now I'm starting to get paranoid about this message. Am I really
brave enough to type words like "embarrassing", "misspelling", and
"committed" here?

Thanks again,

-Carl
part-000.sig (application/pgp-signature)

Thread: