UPDATING readability

[Marc Ramirez]

On Saturday 16 October 2004 05:16 pm, David Syphers wrote:
> On Saturday 16 October 2004 01:25 pm, Marc Ramirez wrote:
> > On Saturday 16 October 2004 03:08 pm, David Syphers wrote:
> > > On Saturday 16 October 2004 01:53 am, Matteo Riondato wrote:
> > > > Could we change an entry from:
> > > >
> > > > 20041007:
> > > >         One of the syscalls the 1:1 threading library libthr uses has
> > > >         changed, thus breaking ABI compatibility. Make sure you
> > > > rebuild this library with the kernel.
> > > >
> > > > to:
> >
> > Compromise: One of the syscalls _which_ the ...
>
> Okay... this would be grammatically correct. However, I'm curious why the
> original poster believes the current version to be unclear, since it is
> also grammatically correct. (Omitting "that" or "which" at the beginning of
> a restrictive relative clause is very common in English.)

There are a lot of words between the nominal subject, 'one' and the nominal 
verb, 'has changed.'  All these interspersers must be pushed, and if you're 
not fluent, well, remember the 'five things in short-term memory' rule.

Maybe the best way to write it is in press release style:

Oct 7, 2004

SYSCALL DROPPED, CAUSING LIBRARY BREAKAGE

FreeBSD staff

/USR/SRC/SYS/ - Today, libthr is picking through the pieces of the life it 
once knew.  Libthr, the predominate 1:1 threading library for FreeBSD, found 
today that a syscall it had depended on was dropped from the FreeBSD ABI.  
According to the library, "unless the admin rebuilds me under the new ABI, 
the kernel's only option will be to kill(2) the process, probably with a 
SIGSYS."  The dropped syscall was only four years old.  For more information 
on SIGSYS, visit /usr/include/sys/signal.h.  

-- 
Marc Ramirez
Blue Circle Software Corporation
513-688-1070 (main)
513-382-1270 (direct)
http://www.bluecirclesoft.com
http://www.mrami.com (personal)
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