[pkg-otr-team] Bug#786468: irssi-plugin-otr: package description fixes

[Justin B Rye]

Source: irssi-plugin-otr
Version: 1.0.0-1+b2
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch

The package descriptions for irssi-plugin-otr and irssi-plugin-otr-dbg
have a number of trivial stylistic issues.

> Package: irssi-plugin-otr
[...]
> Description: Off-the-Record Messaging Plugin for Irssi

If the package was called ORMPI, this capitalisation would be
appropriate.  Since it isn't, there's no need to capitalise
"Messaging" or "Plugin", though Irssi is entitled to a capital "I",
and "Off the Record" can have capitalised "T" as well.

>  Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging Plugin for the Irssi Chat Client

Repeating the synopsis is pointless - just drop this.  The first line
of the next paragraph is repetitive enough as it is!

>  .
>  This plugin adds Off-the-Record messaging support for the irssi IRC client.
                                  ^                  ^^^     ^
If we're dropping the previous iteration we can make that
"Off-The-Record (OTR)" here.  We should also capitalise Irssi, since
we're talking about the "brand name" for the piece of software rather
than the verbatim-string command or packagename.

It would also make more sense to say either that it "provides" OTR
support "for" Irssi or (as per my patch) that it "adds" OTR support
"to" Irssi.

>  Although primarily designed for use with the bitlbee IRC2IM gateway, it works
                                                ^   ^
That's "BitlBee".

>  within any query window, provided that the conversation partner's IRC client
>  supports OTR.

It's not clear whether you mean the IRC client of my conversation
partner or the IRC clients of both conversation partners.  I've just
replaced "the" with "your".

>  .
>  OTR allows you to have private conversations over IM by providing:
>   - Encryption
>     - No one else can read your instant messages.
>   - Authentication
>     - You are assured the correspondent is who you think it is.

This scheme of split-level bullet-points seems unnecessarily fiddly -
I've replaced it with something that matches the "debian-l10n-english
house style", like this:

    * Encryption - no one else can read your instant messages.
    * Authentication - you are assured the correspondent is who you think
      it is.

>   - Deniability
>     - The messages you send do _not_ have digital signatures that are
>       checkable by a third party.  Anyone can forge messages after a
>       conversation to make them look like they came from you.  However,
>       _during_ a conversation, your correspondent is assured the messages
>       he sees are authentic and unmodified.

The main reason I'm picking on this package description rather than
all the other package descriptions out there with much worse English
is that "your correspondent" is not necessarily male.  You could make
it "he or she", but the most natural-sounding solution is to make the
correspondents plural (which, after all, they are).

It's interesting to notice that the previous bulletpoint referred to
"the correspondent" as an "it", which was perfectly idiomatic in that
context, but won't work here.

>   - Perfect forward secrecy
>     - If you lose control of your private keys, no previous conversation
>       is compromised.
 
> Package: irssi-plugin-otr-dbg
[...]
> Description: Off-the-Record Messaging Plugin for Irssi - debugging symbols
>  Off-the-Record (OTR) Messaging Plugin for the Irssi Chat Client
>  .
>  This plugin adds Off-the-Record messaging support for the irssi IRC client.
>  Although primarily designed for use with the bitlbee IRC2IM gateway, it works
>  within any query window, provided that the conversation partner's IRC client
>  supports OTR.
>  .
>  This package features debugging symbols for the plugin.

No new problems here. 
-- 
JBR	with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
	sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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