Re: Patch to correct a little wording mistake

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2 cam ac uk>]

On Wed, 2007-11-07 at 19:50 +0100, Milan wrote:
> Peter Clifton a écrit :

> Maybe to be more precise, it would be a semantic mistake, grammar in its
> stict sense is still correct here.
> 
> From my previous report on Bugzilla:
> 
> When the network is disconnected, a notification appears, saying:
> "The network connection has been disconnected."
> 
> This is one of the sentences you show most often on your desktop, and it is
> quite grammatically incorrect. *You can't disconnect a connexion, you disconnect
> a cable; I'd rather say you stop/interrupt/bring down a connexion. This is like
> saying "prices are expensive" or "speed is fast": just ridiculous... ;-)*

I think I see your point. The Ubuntu Gutsy shipped NM doesn't appear to
pop up this notification, so I've not seen it.

Doesn't Microsoft Windows use something like "A network cable is
unplugged" as a notification? (This of course requires us to know which
network devices use a cable as the physical link).

Verbs which imply the limited network connectivity are difficult. We
might "break" a connection (but shouldn't tell the user something about
their computer broke), "interrupted" implies a transient event which
might be fixed now. How about simply "The network is disconnected".?

> Moreover, the title of the pop-up is "Disconnected", so the term appears twice.

Ok, not having seen the popup, I wasn't aware of that.

Perhaps I shouldn't turn this into a "bikeshed" argument.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_of_the_bikeshed), the term
"interrupted" just didn't feel right.

Best wishesm

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)