I hate to bitch but bitch I must

[PJ]

Bob Hall wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 02:34:40AM +0000, Mark wrote:
>   
>> Actually, this has got very little to do with being a native English
>> speaker or not. It's ere a matter of intonation (which, in writing, can
>> only be conveyed to a certain degree, of course). 'Should' can certainly
>> mean "Don't try that." As in:
>>
>> Will the ice hold me?
>> Well, technically it should.
>>
>> (Meaning: it probably will, but I'm not overly confident.)
>>     
>
> Actually, what's happening here is dropping part of a sentence. It's
> common in English to shorten
> 	Yea, it should work, but it doesn't.
>   
Absolutely not! There is nothing to suggest either statement above. If
one says it should work, it can mean (of course, it changes within
different contexts) that all is ok and normal conditions (whatever they
may be) will allow things to function correctly. There is certainly no
implication about confidence... where do you get that? It can mean ver
confident just as well. And dropping a sentence is a very presumptuous
assumption. "but is doesn't" is a specific condition... and there can me
innumerable conditions.
If you look at the immediate context of what we are dealing with here,
the author has clearly stated "use in SUM" and that implies an unmounted
system. If he considers using it on an active system as a bug, then he
should be clear about it and say "do not use on an active system".

> to
> 	Yea, it should work.
> In order to catch the meaning, you have to be aware of context.
>
> Contrary to the OP's claim, this shows a pretty good grasp of English
> idiom. It's definitely not evidence that the man author is not a native
> speaker of English.
>
> On the other hand, it can be clarified so that the meaning is clear even
> without context. If the OP really believes that the present wording is a
> problem, other people have made suggestions on what to do about it.
>   
In the end, it's up to the author to clarify... I don't understand what
he's trying to do as on my stem his instructions/example just do not
work anyway. :-(
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