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Sorry for my bad English. Does this sound better: "Linux distribution is a well-tested collection of packages that are carefully organized and supported by th

by smira 12y ago

Sorry for my bad English. Does this sound better: "Linux distribution is a well-tested collection of packages that are carefully organized and supported by the vendor."

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
codeflo 12y ago
The missing article at the start of the sentence makes it very hard to decipher if you're talking about Linux distributions in general or a specific one. "A Linux distrubution is ..." is probably what you intended to say, but I'm not sure.
- smira 12y ago
  Thanks for your suggestions!
  - robinson-wall 12y ago
    Have you considered making the website / documentation source available in github? That would make it very easy for others to contribute suggestions.
    - smira 12y ago
      It is actually available: https://github.com/aptly-dev/aptly-dev.github.io/tree/trunk https://github.com/aptly-dev/aptly-dev.github.io/tree/trunk In trunk branch, the markdown under content/ folder.
      - padraic7a 12y ago
        I see you've just added changes, are you looking for anyone to proof read at this stage?
pluma 12y ago
Grammar aside, I'd say the plural feels more natural in this case: "Linux distributions are well-tested collections of packages …" But for singular you need to qualify "Linux distribution": "A Linux distribution is a well-tested collection of packages …" And I'd probably say "by a vendor" instead of "by the vendor" as it's not clear you're talking about a specific vendor. Also, the "a" is wrong in this: "There’s a support for …" This should be: "There is support for …", in other words: "Support exists for …". Support is non-countable (like water, peace or terrorism) in English. As a rule of thumb: * if it's non-countable, just leave it bare: "I bought water", "It has support", "This is murder". * if you're referring to a specific instance of something the audience knows about or you're going to qualify, use "the": "I bought the house [I previously told you about]", "I shot the gopher that kept digging up my lawn". * otherwise use "a": "I bought a house" (this is news to you), "I ran over a cat" (if you say "the cat", the listener would instantly think "which one?"). English is "fun".
- dllthomas 12y ago
  English has a countable "support" - it can be used to refer to several physical objects in various structural contexts (architecture being one). That is not the sense in which it's being used here, though.
- pbhjpbhj 12y ago
  In English (en-gb) colloquialism "I ran over the cat" would be perfectly fine as "the cat" is understood to mean "our/my cat". "Your dinner's in the dog", "I locked the keys in the car", et cetera. Similarly in a sentence like "Why don't you and the family come up to the house sometime for tea.". "The house" substitutes for "our house". Now all you need to work out is whether tea is afternoon tea, a cup of tea, or an evening meal and if the offer is sincere. I gather the response is supposed to be "That would be lovely." rather than actually trying to arrange the proffered social meeting.
  - pluma 12y ago
    Sure, but presume neither the speaker nor the recipient owns a cat. Without an obvious context ("the cat"? what cats could we both know of?), it's not entirely clear. Saying "the" instead of "a" generally assumes a context that has either been established before during the conversation or outside of it. Imagine a stranger telling you they "accidentally killed the koala". You'd be confused. Not that strangers telling you about exotic animals they accidentally killed wouldn't be confusing enough.

by smira 12y ago

Sorry for my bad English. Does this sound better: "Linux distribution is a well-tested collection of packages that are carefully organized and supported by the vendor."

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

codeflo 12y ago

The missing article at the start of the sentence makes it very hard to decipher if you're talking about Linux distributions in general or a specific one. "A Linux distrubution is ..." is probably what you intended to say, but I'm not sure.

smira 12y ago
Thanks for your suggestions!
- robinson-wall 12y ago
  Have you considered making the website / documentation source available in github? That would make it very easy for others to contribute suggestions.
  - smira 12y ago
    It is actually available: https://github.com/aptly-dev/aptly-dev.github.io/tree/trunk https://github.com/aptly-dev/aptly-dev.github.io/tree/trunk In trunk branch, the markdown under content/ folder.
    - padraic7a 12y ago
      I see you've just added changes, are you looking for anyone to proof read at this stage?

pluma 12y ago

Grammar aside, I'd say the plural feels more natural in this case: "Linux distributions are well-tested collections of packages …" But for singular you need to qualify "Linux distribution": "A Linux distribution is a well-tested collection of packages …" And I'd probably say "by a vendor" instead of "by the vendor" as it's not clear you're talking about a specific vendor. Also, the "a" is wrong in this: "There’s a support for …" This should be: "There is support for …", in other words: "Support exists for …". Support is non-countable (like water, peace or terrorism) in English. As a rule of thumb: * if it's non-countable, just leave it bare: "I bought water", "It has support", "This is murder". * if you're referring to a specific instance of something the audience knows about or you're going to qualify, use "the": "I bought the house [I previously told you about]", "I shot the gopher that kept digging up my lawn". * otherwise use "a": "I bought a house" (this is news to you), "I ran over a cat" (if you say "the cat", the listener would instantly think "which one?"). English is "fun".

dllthomas 12y ago
English has a countable "support" - it can be used to refer to several physical objects in various structural contexts (architecture being one). That is not the sense in which it's being used here, though.
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
In English (en-gb) colloquialism "I ran over the cat" would be perfectly fine as "the cat" is understood to mean "our/my cat". "Your dinner's in the dog", "I locked the keys in the car", et cetera. Similarly in a sentence like "Why don't you and the family come up to the house sometime for tea.". "The house" substitutes for "our house". Now all you need to work out is whether tea is afternoon tea, a cup of tea, or an evening meal and if the offer is sincere. I gather the response is supposed to be "That would be lovely." rather than actually trying to arrange the proffered social meeting.
- pluma 12y ago
  Sure, but presume neither the speaker nor the recipient owns a cat. Without an obvious context ("the cat"? what cats could we both know of?), it's not entirely clear. Saying "the" instead of "a" generally assumes a context that has either been established before during the conversation or outside of it. Imagine a stranger telling you they "accidentally killed the koala". You'd be confused. Not that strangers telling you about exotic animals they accidentally killed wouldn't be confusing enough.