Package: partman-partitioning
Version: 57
Severity: minor
Tags: l10n
I did an install recently using lenny_di_beta1 and noticed a
dialogue from partman-partitioning (would that be version 57?):
> Hint: Use "20%" (or "30%", etc.) for 20% (resp. 30%, etc.) over the
> minimal allowed size. Use "max" as a shortcut for the maximal allowed
> size.
Problems:
- "Resp." is entirely unknown in native-speaker English.
- This particular use of "resp." seems bizarre in any language.
It's telling me that if I mean 20% I should enter "20%", and
if I mean 30% I should enter "30%", but *NOT* vice-versa.
- Carrying on with the usage advice: the "etc." doesn't quite fit,
because it's really "or whatever", not "and the rest". This
would be the natural place to fit the idea that the "resp."
was trying to convey.
- Another usage point: "maximum" and "minimum" are more likely than
"maximal" and "minimal". Yes, I know they look like nouns
instead of adjectives, but English doesn't care.
- What's this about a minimal and maximal "allowed" size, anyway?
What rules am I being expected to obey, apart from the
obvious one that a partition can use all the available space
but no more?
- It doesn't say what the percentages represent; only that they're
(tautologously) over the minimum. The natural assumption is
that if I've got a drive with 100GB of space, 20% means
20GB, but the phrasing of this hint implies something
different. Imagine for the sake of argument that the
"minimal allowed size" turns out (freakishly) to be 10GB; if
a 20% partition is 20% "over" that minimum size, does that
mean it's 20GB? 30GB? 38GB?
- And one last point of punctuation: according to most style
guides, since a colon doesn't end a sentence it isn't
followed by capitalisation.
Putting it all together I would suggest changing it to:
Hint: enter "20%" (or whatever value is appropriate) to use some
percentage of the available space, or "max" as a shortcut for
all of it.
CC-ing debian-l10n-english for any better ideas.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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