Subversion Book Typo

C. Michael Pilato cmpilato at red-bean.com
Sun Feb 12 23:37:24 CST 2006


Jim Blandy wrote:
> On 2/11/06, C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato at red-bean.com> wrote:
> 
>>Tabish Mustufa wrote:
>>
>>>The last sentence of the first paragraph after
>>>the subsection title reads:
>>>
>>>This section is specific to Berkeley DB; FSFS repositories have no
>>>extra data that be cleaned up or reclaimed.
>>>
>>>I think it ought to read:
>>>
>>>This section is specific to Berkeley DB; FSFS repositories have no
>>>extra data that *needs to* be cleaned up or reclaimed.
>>
>>As odd as it might sound, the grammar is correct.  "Data" is the plural
>>form of the word "datum".  If you replace in that sentence the plural
>>word "data" with, say, another plural -- "bits of information" -- your
>>ears are happier, right?  :-)
> 
> 
> ???  No, it's definitely wrong as written.  "that" should be "to", I
> think: "FSFS repositories have no extra data to be cleaned up or
> reclaimed."

Yeah, Tabish pointed out my error privately.  I got so caught up in the 
incorrectness of "needs to" that despite multiple readings, my brain 
wouldn't let me notice that neither "need to" nor "needs to" was present 
at all in the original.

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato at red-bean.com>

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has
  been found difficult; and left untried."  -- G. K. Chesterton




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