#982272 Grammar of "xx packages upgraded..."

Package:
aptitude
Source:
aptitude
Description:
terminal-based package manager
Submitter:
積丹尼 Dan Jacobson
Date:
2021-02-08 21:39:53 UTC
Severity:
minor
#982272#5
Date:
2021-02-08 01:19:49 UTC
From:
To:
If you think about it, the grammar of

   # aptitude install some_package
   ...
   0 packages upgraded, 22 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
                    AA                  BB    CCCCCCCCC       DDDDDDDDDDDD

is weird.

AA, BB, DD are past tense, CC is future tense, or something like that.
So to make them all agree, CC should be "removed".
Or even more accurate, instead, AA should be "to upgrade", BB "to newly
install", and DD "to upgrade".
#982272#10
Date:
2021-02-08 16:27:14 UTC
From:
To:
                    ^^^^^^^^^^                  ^^^^^^^^^^

That is showing already the main problem with changing the text while
keeping to the constraints of being short – all the while not changing
it in the middle of the freeze either.

If we had a whole paragraph to spare I think everyone could come up with
a reasonable text.

The only "proper" solution to this sloppily sewn-together sentence
(which is a translator favorite by virtue of being sewn-together, too)
will be to remove it in favour of a UI redesign, not to trying to patch
it up slightly different in English to let new problems emerge for the
other languages (and as you suggestion shows, for English, too).

I doubt that is on the agenda all to soon. Very much not going to happen
in freeze at least.


Best regards

David Kalnischkies
#982272#15
Date:
2021-02-08 17:26:11 UTC
From:
To:
Hi David,

David Kalnischkies wrote:
[...]
[...]

Please calm down. :-)

Dan reported it as "minor" and not as "important". And that's what it
is: minor. I do not expect that he expected us to fix that
immediately. So yes, we will have a look at and maybe fix it —
eventually.

		Regards, Axel
#982272#20
Date:
2021-02-08 21:32:22 UTC
From:
To:
No worries, I am calm, I just wanted to denote this as neither an easy
fix (minor is described as "… and is presumably trivial to fix") nor
something which will get a lot of attention in the coming weeks/months
(and perhaps a bit of preemptive fire as apt has pretty much the same
 text… beside that I have the strange feeling of having this discussion
 quiet recently somewhere else… where was that? mhhhh…)

Lets pretend I wrote freeze two times as "to upgrade" was said twice as
well… probably more the result of having stopped writing the mail in the
middle. Seems I get old when I can't remember at the end of a relatively
short mail what I wrote in the first few sentences of it. 😉

No offense intended and hopefully none taken, otherwise I am sorry for
causing a misunderstanding.


Best regards

David Kalnischkies