From: Philip Oakley Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2017 12:36:35 GMT Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] sequencer.c: fix and unify error messages in rearrange_squash() Message-ID: <17346CCF8DEF41E790C96248408E07D2@PhilipOakley> In-Reply-To: From: "Johannes Schindelin" > On Mon, 16 Oct 2017, Junio C Hamano wrote: > >> Ralf Thielow writes: >> >> > When the write opertion fails, we write that we could >> > not read. Change the error message to match the operation >> > and remove the full stop at the end. >> > >> > When ftruncate() fails, we write that we couldn't finish >> > the operation on the todo file. It is more accurate to write >> > that we couldn't truncate as we do in other calls of ftruncate(). >> >> Wouldn't it be more accurate to say we couldn't ftruncate, though? > > This is an end-user facing error message, right? Should we not let users > who are happily oblivious of POSIX nomenclature remain happily oblivious? > > In other words, I would be finer with "truncate" than with "ftruncate... > wait, huh? Is that even English?" > Hi, 'Truncate' is real English, but it is not that common in normal usage. My dictionary suggests that it means 'cut off at the tip' such as a truncated cone. However the thesaurus is far more relaxed about the common idioms that truncate at the tail such as: clip, crop, cut short, trim, abbreviate, curtail, etc. So perhaps "could not trim '%s'". -- Philip