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

[Padraig Rocks]

On Tuesday, 12 August 2014, Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> --
> http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser
> Offtopic discussions among Debian users and developers:
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> http://nuvreauspam.ro/gpg-transition.txt
>

Or to avoid the comma ?

" A stopped job exists in Session 2 of the user named Joe"

Regards
Padraig
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