No offense is intended, but the following phrase is passive English and sounds truly awful: ~ $ emerge portage emerge: superuser access would be required. Instead you should use an active statement, for example: You need to use superuser access to run that command. or You cannot run that command using normal user access, please use superuser access. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Type emerge <package-name> as normal user. 2. 3.
s/that/this/
(In reply to comment #0) > Instead you should use an active statement, for example: I prefer the passive version because it's more succinct. Where is the rule that says "statements should be active and not passive".
(In reply to comment #0) > No offense is intended, but the following phrase is passive English and sounds > truly awful: > > ~ $ emerge portage > emerge: superuser access would be required. The phrase is incomplete. Under what circumstances would superuser access be required? How about the succinct: "superuser access is required."?
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #0) > > Instead you should use an active statement, for example: > > I prefer the passive version because it's more succinct. Where is the rule > that says "statements should be active and not passive". There no such rule, but it is nonetheless sensible to avoid the passive voice. "Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to around using a passive verb. The difference between an active-verb style and a passive-verb style---in clarity and vigor---is the difference between life and death for a writer." ---William Zinsser, "On Writing Well", 25th Anniversary Edition, p. 68 Joseph Williams has a good discussion of the pros and cons of using the passive voice in "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace", Sixth Edition, pp. 78-83. "Active verbs move us forward; passive verbs move us backward. Active verbs give us the actor up front; passive verbs make us wait to learn the actor." ---John Trimble, "Writing with Style", 2nd Edition, p. 56 "Many English educators and usage guides, such as "The Elements of Style", discourage the use or overuse of the passive voice, seeing it as unnecessarily verbose (when the agent is included in a by phrase), or as obscure and vague (when it is not)." ---Wikipedia ("English_passive_voice").
(In reply to comment #3) > How about the succinct: "superuser access is required."? Thanks, that's in svn.
This has been released in 2.1.3_rc3.
