Re: Patch to correct a little wording mistake

[Bryan Clark <bclark redhat com>]

Milan wrote:
> Dan Williams wrote:
>   
> > The problem with "interrupted" is that it implies that the connection
> > will come back of it's own accord, or that you were always meant to be
> > connected but that it just dropped out for a short period, which
> > definitely isn't the case.  We need something that implies that you have
> > no network anymore.  "Down" doesn't work (like somebody said) because
> > WTF does down mean.  The user just needs to know that they don't have a
> > network connection anymore, even though there are a myriad of reasons
> > that this even may have occurred.
> >   
> >     
> I perfectly get your point here: the message should be clear and
> precise. "Interrupted" may mislead the user.
>
> OTOH, "The network is disconnected" (as proposed by Peter) is not really
> nice because the network is not (dis)connected: it exists, and you
> (dis)connect to (from) it. So we would get the same problem with that
> formulation. Network vocabulary is subtle to use...
>
> "The computer is no longer connected." "The machine has been
> disconnected." "Your system is not connected anymore." "You are no
> longer connected to XXXX." "The network connexion to/via XXXX has been
> stopped." "The network connexion is no longer active."
> Or a variant (cable/wifi): "The network cable is unplugged"/"The
> wireless network XXXX is no longer reachable" (requiring a code change)
> These are other ideas to adapt/mix, though I'm not English so I can't
> really find the right native expressions.
>
> My idea with this mail was more about raising the (little) problem and
> giving you an easy way to correct that (no need to search in the source
> to check and fix): feel free to choose the right expression, since your
> are the English speaking developers (two reasons for you to know better
> than me what to do ;-) ). Then we can simply edit the patches by hand to
> change that, it takes 30 secs.
>
> Hope you may find the right word!
I'd recommend you go with the slight anthropomorphism or perhaps 
vicarious text.  Despite the fact that your system is what keeps 
disconnecting and reconnecting to the network that's not how people 
think about it.  When someone asks you if your laptop is connected to 
the network they usually say; "Are you able to connect to the network?" 
despite the obvious problem that your appendages cannot associate to the 
access point in question.  Nobody really says "Is your laptop connected 
to the network?" just because it's easier to leave the object out of the 
question and talk about the connection itself.

"You are no longer connected to XXX"

I recall the HIG recommended "jargon free" and simple messages,
~ Bryan