[ On Friday, October 11, 2002 at 09:55:48 (-0400), Jan Schaumann wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: Abbreviations
>
> Julio Merino <jmmv@menta.net> wrote:
> 
> > Should we "fix" all abbreviations (it's, we've, can't...) to their extended
> > form in commands and documentation? I think this is more formal, right?
> 
> No, "can't", "shouldn't" and the like are completely acceptable in
> written English -- changing them to 'can not' etc. is a no-op at best.

Formal English language documentation should avoid contractions, at
least not according to the technical documentation guides I have.

I agree though that there's no need for the Unix documentation to be
transformed into a more formal style.

> P.S.:  This is more of a documentation question, I believe, so I CC'd
> netbsd-docs@, where the discussion (if any) should take place.

I don't think I subscribe to that list, but I've set replies to go there
anyway.  :-)

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

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