Bug 61628

Summary: Mistake in Handbook, section 8.6.4 passwd
Product: Documentation Reporter: Marian Cerny <jojo>
Component: Books & ArticlesAssignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: Latest   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   

Description Marian Cerny 2004-01-20 13:20:08 UTC 
In section 8.6.4 passwd of Handbook is written:
Users must type in ther original password before changing their password, to prevent an unauthorized person from changing their password when the user is away from their console.

I think that "... their password, to prevent ..." should be written without coma: "... their password to prevent ..."

I am not an English speaker, so I may be wrong. ;-) I just seems strange to me.

How-To-Repeat: See section 8.6.4 of the Handbook.
Comment 1 Ceri Davies freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-01-20 14:16:54 UTC 
On Tue, Jan 20, 2004 at 05:18:33AM -0800, Marian Cerny wrote:

> Users must type in ther original password before changing their
> password, to prevent an unauthorized person from changing their password
> when the user is away from their console.
>
> I think that "... their password, to prevent ..." should be written
> without coma: "... their password to prevent ..."

Losing the comma would result in a grammatically correct, though
unwieldy, sentence.  The easiest way to deal with is to move "before
changing their password," to the beginning of the sentence.

Ceri

--
Comment 2 Ceri Davies freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-01-20 18:00:21 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

I reworded the sentence as in my followup.  Thanks for the submission.
Comment 3 Warren Block 2004-01-21 05:26:04 UTC 
On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Ceri Davies wrote:

>  > Users must type in ther original password before changing their
>  > password, to prevent an unauthorized person from changing their password
>  > when the user is away from their console.
>
>  Losing the comma would result in a grammatically correct, though
>  unwieldy, sentence.  The easiest way to deal with is to move "before
>  changing their password," to the beginning of the sentence.

Still unwieldy, though.  This may be a little better:

  To prevent accidental or unauthorized changes, the original password
  must be entered before a new password may be set.

(And "may be set" looks wrong, but it's late and I can't come up with
anything else except "assigned", which also looks wrong...)

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA