misc/140457: Grammar fix for isspace(3)

[Bruce Evans]

The following reply was made to PR misc/140457; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Bruce Evans <brde at optusnet.com.au>
To: Jeremy Huddleston <jeremyhu at apple.com>
Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit at FreeBSD.org, freebsd-bugs at FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: misc/140457: Grammar fix for isspace(3)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:08:28 +1100 (EST)

 On Tue, 10 Nov 2009, Jeremy Huddleston wrote:
 
 >> Fix:
 > --- isspace.3.bsdnew	2009-11-10 13:13:10.000000000 -0800
 > +++ isspace.3	2009-11-10 13:45:41.000000000 -0800
 > @@ -54,9 +54,9 @@ For any locale, this includes the follow
 > .It "\&``\et''\t``\en''\t``\ev''\t``\ef''\t``\er''\t`` ''"
 > .El
 > .Pp
 > -In the "C" locale
 > +In the "C" locale,
 
 This and the other commas you want to add are improvements, but is this
 because they are required by grammar or style?
 
 > .Fn isspace
 > -successful test is limited to this characters only.
 > +successful test is limited to these characters only.
 > The value of the argument must be representable as an
 > .Vt "unsigned char"
 > or the value of
 
 isspace.3 has several more grammar errors.  In FreeBSD changes, I noticed:
 
 % Index: isspace.3
 % ===================================================================
 % RCS file: /home/ncvs/src/lib/libc/locale/isspace.3,v
 % retrieving revision 1.1
 % retrieving revision 1.22
 % diff -u -2 -r1.1 -r1.22
 % --- isspace.3	27 May 1994 04:56:44 -0000	1.1
 % +++ isspace.3	4 Sep 2009 07:44:58 -0000	1.22
 % ...
 %  .Sh DESCRIPTION
 %  The
 %  .Fn isspace
 % -function tests for the standard white-space characters.
 % -In the ASCII character set, this includes the following characters:
 % -.sp
 % -.Bl -column \&000_``0''__ \&000_``0''__ \&000_``0''__ \&000_``0''__ \&000_``0''__
 % -.It \&011\ ht \t012\ nl \t013\ vt \t014\ np \t015\ cr
 % -.It \&040\ sp
 % +function tests for the white-space characters.
 
 This got mangled by removing "standard" without removing "the".  The
 latter applies to "standard", not the the white-space characters, and
 not removing it defeats the point of removing "standard" (by suggesting
 that there is a single set of white-space characters, instead of a
 standard set and nonstandard extensions).
 
 % +For any locale, this includes the following standard characters:
 % +.Pp
 % +.Bl -column \&`\et''___ \&``\et''___ \&``\et''___ \&``\et''___ \&``\et''___ \&``\et''___
 % +.It "\&``\et''\t``\en''\t``\ev''\t``\ef''\t``\er''\t`` ''"
 %  .El
 % +.Pp
 % +In the "C" locale
 % +.Fn isspace
 % +successful test is limited to this characters only.
 
 "isspace successful test" still has a couple of grammar errors.
 
 The C standard has much better wording for this, of course.  POSIX.1
 (which FreeBSD has permission to copy) unfortunately doesn't copy the
 C standard, and it has grammatically correct but otherwise poor wording
 (at least in a draft 2001 version) (it refers to the C standard and a
 generic section), so copying it wouldn't be useful.
 
 The C standard says "standard white space" like the above used to, but
 doesn't say "the standard", and it handles the bug fixed in the above
 better by saying "standard ... or ... locale-specific...".  Then it
 lists the standard white-space characters (hopefully the same set as
 above).  Then it has very good wording instead of "successful test is
 limited to this [sic] characters".
 
 isblank.3 has the same bugs.
 
 Bruce