Re: Errors in man pages, here: st.4.po: Wording

["\"Kai Mäkisara (Kolumbus)\"" <kai.makisara@kolumbus.fi>]

Hello,

> On 20. Apr 2020, at 21.25, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Kai,
> 
> On Mon, 20 Apr 2020 at 17:59, "Kai Mäkisara (Kolumbus)"
> <kai.makisara@kolumbus.fi> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On 20. Apr 2020, at 12.48, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> [CC += Kai]
>>> 
>>> On 4/19/20 8:48 AM, Helge Kreutzmann wrote:
>>>> Dear manpages maintainers.
>>>> 
>> ...
>>>> **
>>>> 
>>>> media → data
>>>> 
>>>> msgid "Go to the end of the recorded media (for appending files)."
>>>> 
>> End of media is the end of the tape. End of recorded media means
>> after the last record/filemark that has been written to the tape. Usually
>> (not always) you can write more data after what has been written
>> so far. End of recorded media is standard tape terminology.
>> 
>>>> --
>>>> drive → media
>>>> 
>>>> "B<GMT_WR_PROT>(I<x>): The drive is write-protected.  For some drives this "
>>>> "can also mean that the drive does not support writing on the current medium "
>>>> "type."
>>> 
>> This basically means that the drive refuses to write to the media. It can be
>> write-protected by the user. The additional text hints at the possibility
>> that the drive can only read the media type in the drive. It is quite
>> common that drives can read, for instance, several old formats
>> (usually with smaller capacity) but can write only the newest types.
>> Many times the user may not know very well the properties of the
>> drive and wonders, why can’t I write even if the tape can be read
>> and the write protect tab is off.
> 
> So, if I understand right, then no changes to the wording are required?
> 
I don’t think changes are necessarily needed. I don’t find any errors
here. But when the text is not clear to readers, I always ask myself,
should it be made clearer. I have understood that the man pages
must be precise, but not too long. The requirements are different
for the different sections of man pages. For instance, section 1 is
meant for “ordinary” users but section 4 is for low-level interface
to device drivers. I think we can assume that the users of 
section 4 have some technical knowledge about the device they
are interested in programming.

So, I don’t think changes are necessary. But I don’t object if someone
wants to enhance the descriptions as long as they are precise and
not too long.

Thanks,
Kai