[OT] on wording of computer messages [was: Re: systemd fails to poweroff - "A stop job is running for Session 2 of user $USER"]

[Andrei POPESCU]

On Ma, 12 aug 14, 12:51:12, Paul E Condon wrote:
> I interpret the quoted string in the Subject: header as being flawed
> use of English language. 'stop' should be 'stopped'. And, there is a
... 
> In a better formulated message, there should be a comma ',' between
> 'user' and '$USER'. Thus if the USER of Session 2 is Joe, the message
> should read (adding a full stop at the end):
> 
> "A stopped job is running for Session 2 of user, Joe."
> 
> But even this is poorly worded. A job that is both running, and
> stopped is a goofy idea, as well as somewhat verbose. Maybe it should
> be:
> 
> "A stopped job exists for Session 2 of user, Joe."

As a non-native speaker of English I understood the message as being 
about a job that tries to stop something, hence "a stop job". Also, the 
comma definitely "feels" wrong. If anything that I'd rather put a colon, 
but it's still quite understandable for me like it is.

Kind regards,
Andrei
P.S. CC and Reply-to: -offtopic as this is not very relevant to Debian
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