freebsd stable - Feb 2014 - RFC: deprecation of nve(4) in 10-STABLE and removal from 11-CURRENT

On 6 Feb 2014, at 18:34, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com> wrote:
> Best avoid the obscure word `Deprecated' in manuals:
>  It's not common/ plain English.  Maybe a geek import, or USA
>  dialect ?  It's not easily internationaly understood English.
>  Best make manuals easier for non native English speakers (& native
>  English too ;-).  I am British born & bred, whether in English
>  speaking circles in UK or Germany I never hear or read
'deprecated'
>  unless its in BSD context.  Few native English speakers I know will be
>  immediately sure of the meaning, it's too obscure.
I'd strongly disagree with this.  Deprecated is, perhaps, only in common use
as jargon, but it's very widespread within the tech field.  I don't
think I've ever read an API reference that doesn't include the word, for
example, and it's even a keyword in many code documentation tools.  For
example, JavaDoc supports @deprecated and gcc / clang include an
__attribute__((deprecated)) that generates a compile-time warning whenever
anyone tries to call a deprecated function.

I've not come across the word outside of tech uses, but I've also not
come across the term network interface outside of tech circles.  Deprecated, in
this use, may be jargon, but it's very widespread jargon, and requesting it
not be used sounds like asking for words like driver or processor also be
avoided.

David
(Also a native English speaker, although familiar with the unofficial fork from
Leftpondia)

Hi, Reference:
> From:		David Chisnall <theraven at freebsd.org>
> Date:		Thu, 6 Feb 2014 18:52:43 +0000
David Chisnall wrote:
> On 6 Feb 2014, at 18:34, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com> wrote:
> 
> > Best avoid the obscure word `Deprecated' in manuals:
> >  It's not common/ plain English.  Maybe a geek import, or USA
> >  dialect ?  It's not easily internationaly understood English.
> >  Best make manuals easier for non native English speakers (&
native
> >  English too ;-).  I am British born & bred, whether in English
> >  speaking circles in UK or Germany I never hear or read
'deprecated'
> >  unless its in BSD context.  Few native English speakers I know will
be
> >  immediately sure of the meaning, it's too obscure.
> 
> I'd strongly disagree with this.  Deprecated is, perhaps, only in
common use as jargon, but it's very widespread within the tech field.  I
don't think I've ever read an API reference that doesn't include the
word, for example, and it's even a keyword in many code documentation tools.
For example, JavaDoc supports @deprecated and gcc / clang include an
__attribute__((deprecated)) that generates a compile-time warning whenever
anyone tries to call a deprecated function.
> 
> I've not come across the word outside of tech uses, but I've also
not come across the term network interface outside of tech circles.  Deprecated,
in this use, may be jargon, but it's very widespread jargon, and requesting
it not be used sounds like asking for words like driver or processor also be
avoided.
> 
> David
> (Also a native English speaker, although familiar with the unofficial fork
from Leftpondia)
Uh Huh ;-)  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Leftpondia
American 1620 fork of English deduced.
  1620: When a Mayflower butter maid Deprecated a milk maid giving 20 ounces
  to a pint, & confused USA liquids down to 16 ounces.  (Beware man units).

Amerian is not always best international English.  It's a big early
variant of English, but other native English speakers round the
globe well outnumber American I believe.  (Start with a map of the
Commonwealth), & many 2nd language people too will help define
international English, (as Jos? Manuel Barroso, EU commission
president, said), not just natives, eg British or Americans etc,
will get to shape international English.

Americans often seem to find it harder to grasp what's internationaly
portable English, as opposed to American, perhaps because a large
country makes a higher percentage of language experience internal
national usage.

FreeBSD's manual writers, especially non native English manual
writers, should not copy Americanisms &/or bad nomenclature from
one manual to another, but ask themselves if they know better words,
to make it easier also for other non native English to read.  eg
Deprecated is not common English.

PS Light relief: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140206-can-drones-be-hacked

Cheers,
Julian
-- 
Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultant, Munich http://berklix.com
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