[tz] [PATCH] The word "data" is plural.

Stephen Colebourne scolebourne at joda.org
Wed Aug 13 07:14:17 UTC 2014


I object to this. It changes readable English into nonsense.

Changing
"The number of "transition times" for which data is stored"
to
"The number of "transition times" for which data are stored"
is just plain wrong.

I understand that "data" may be in some senses a plural, but no-one
ever uses it in that way. Consider it a quirk of English. This patch
needs reverting (if it had been on a git branch it would never have
passed its review and been easily discarded).

Stephen





On 13 August 2014 02:03, Paul Eggert <eggert at cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> ---
>  NEWS         | 10 +++++-----
>  Theory       |  4 ++--
>  africa       |  2 +-
>  asia         |  7 +++----
>  australasia  |  2 +-
>  europe       |  2 +-
>  newctime.3   |  2 +-
>  northamerica |  2 +-
>  southamerica |  2 +-
>  tzfile.5     |  6 +++---
>  zic.8        |  2 +-
>  11 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
> index 4be8450..9765e56 100644
> --- a/NEWS
> +++ b/NEWS
> @@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ Release 2014a - 2014-03-07 23:30:29 -0800
>
>        Microsoft has some support for tz database names.
>
> -      CLDR data is available in both XML and JSON form.
> +      CLDR data are available in both XML and JSON form.
>
>        Mention Maggiolo's map of solar vs standard time.
>        (Thanks to Arthur David Olson.)
> @@ -671,8 +671,8 @@ Release 2013e - 2013-09-19 23:50:04 -0700
>      some errors before 1947.
>
>      Some zones have been turned into links, when they differ from
> -    existing zones only in older data that was likely invented or that
> -    differs only in LMT or transition from LMT.  These changes affect
> +    existing zones only in older data that were likely invented or that
> +    differ only in LMT or transitions from LMT.  These changes affect
>      only time stamps before 1943.  The affected zones are:
>      Africa/Juba, America/Anguilla, America/Aruba, America/Dominica,
>      America/Grenada, America/Guadeloupe, America/Marigot,
> @@ -2543,7 +2543,7 @@ Release 94h - 1994-12-10 12:51:14 -0500
>         data files.
>
>    Think of this as "TZ Classic" - the software has been set up not to break if
> -  universal time shows up in its input, and the data has been left as is so as
> +  universal time shows up in its input, and the data have been left as is so as
>    not to break existing implementations.
>
>
> @@ -2623,7 +2623,7 @@ Release 93f - 1993-10-15 12:27:46 -0400
>
>  Release 93e - 1993-09-05 21:21:44 -0400
>
> -  There's updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's
> +  There are updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's
>    also an update to "zdump" to cope with Kwajalein's 24-hour jump.
>    Thanks to Paul Eggert and Peter Ilieve for the changes.
>
> diff --git a/Theory b/Theory
> index 2a3a911..15c695e 100644
> --- a/Theory
> +++ b/Theory
> @@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
>     the current single entry for France would need to split into dozens
>     of entries, perhaps hundreds.
>
> - * Most of the pre-1970 data comes from unreliable sources, often
> + * Most of the pre-1970 data come from unreliable sources, often
>     astrology books that lack citations and whose compilers evidently
>     invented entries when the true facts were unknown, without
>     reporting which entries were known and which were invented.
> @@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
>     Caledonian railways.
>
>   * The tz database does not record the earliest time for which a
> -   zone's data is thereafter valid for every location in the region.
> +   zone's data are thereafter valid for every location in the region.
>     For example, Europe/London is valid for all locations in its
>     region after GMT was made the standard time, but the date of
>     standardization (1880-08-02) is not in the tz database, other than
> diff --git a/africa b/africa
> index d251500..7e3a860 100644
> --- a/africa
> +++ b/africa
> @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
>  # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of
>  # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
>
> -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
> +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
>  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
>  # tz at iana.org for general use in the future).  For more, please see
>  # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution.
> diff --git a/asia b/asia
> index f8237f4..fbb9391 100644
> --- a/asia
> +++ b/asia
> @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
>  # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of
>  # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
>
> -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
> +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
>  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
>  # tz at iana.org for general use in the future).  For more, please see
>  # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution.
> @@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Rule        PRC     1987    1991    -       Apr     Sun>=10 0:00    1:00    D
>  # Xujiahui Observatory was under French control and stuck with UT+8.
>  #
>  # In earlier versions of this file, China had many separate Zone entries, but
> -# this was based on what was apparently incorrect data in Shanks & Pottenger.
> +# this was based on what were apparently incorrect data in Shanks & Pottenger.
>  # This has now been simplified to the two entries Asia/Shanghai and
>  # Asia/Urumqi, with the others being links for backward compatibility.
>  # Proposed in 1918 and theoretically in effect until 1949 (although in practice
> @@ -2630,8 +2630,7 @@ Rule      Syria   2007    only    -       Nov      Fri>=1 0:00    0       -
>
>  # From Stephen Colebourne (2008-03-17):
>  # For everyone's info, I saw an IATA time zone change for [Syria] for
> -# this month (March 2008) in the last day or so...This is the data IATA
> -# are now using:
> +# this month (March 2008) in the last day or so....
>  # Country     Time Standard   --- DST Start ---   --- DST End ---  DST
>  # Name        Zone Variation   Time    Date        Time    Date
>  # Variation
> diff --git a/australasia b/australasia
> index 094383e..117e841 100644
> --- a/australasia
> +++ b/australasia
> @@ -761,7 +761,7 @@ Zone        Pacific/Wallis  12:15:20 -      LMT     1901
>
>  # NOTES
>
> -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
> +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
>  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
>  # tz at iana.org for general use in the future).  For more, please see
>  # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution.
> diff --git a/europe b/europe
> index 68a0dc7..261b619 100644
> --- a/europe
> +++ b/europe
> @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
>  # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of
>  # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
>
> -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
> +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
>  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
>  # tz at iana.org for general use in the future).  For more, please see
>  # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution.
> diff --git a/newctime.3 b/newctime.3
> index dccab77..5a3f65a 100644
> --- a/newctime.3
> +++ b/newctime.3
> @@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ time(2),
>  tzfile(5)
>  .SH NOTES
>  The return values point to static data;
> -the data is overwritten by each call.
> +the data are overwritten by each call.
>  The
>  .B tm_zone
>  field of a returned
> diff --git a/northamerica b/northamerica
> index 8958588..07cb33a 100644
> --- a/northamerica
> +++ b/northamerica
> @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
>
>  # also includes Central America and the Caribbean
>
> -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
> +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
>  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
>  # tz at iana.org for general use in the future).  For more, please see
>  # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution.
> diff --git a/southamerica b/southamerica
> index 08a0731..0f0c233 100644
> --- a/southamerica
> +++ b/southamerica
> @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
>  # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of
>  # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
>
> -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
> +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better,
>  # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to
>  # tz at iana.org for general use in the future).  For more, please see
>  # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution.
> diff --git a/tzfile.5 b/tzfile.5
> index f413349..182cc43 100644
> --- a/tzfile.5
> +++ b/tzfile.5
> @@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.
>  The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file.
>  .TP
>  .I tzh_leapcnt
> -The number of leap seconds for which data is stored in the file.
> +The number of leap seconds for which data are stored in the file.
>  .TP
>  .I tzh_timecnt
> -The number of "transition times" for which data is stored
> +The number of "transition times" for which data are stored
>  in the file.
>  .TP
>  .I tzh_typecnt
> -The number of "local time types" for which data is stored
> +The number of "local time types" for which data are stored
>  in the file (must not be zero).
>  .TP
>  .I tzh_charcnt
> diff --git a/zic.8 b/zic.8
> index a2e275d..2e5318a 100644
> --- a/zic.8
> +++ b/zic.8
> @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ no leap second information appears in output files.
>  Be more verbose, and complain about the following situations:
>  .RS
>  .PP
> -The input data specifies a link to a link.
> +The input specifies a link to a link.
>  .PP
>  A year that appears in a data file is outside the range
>  of years representable by
> --
> 1.9.1
>


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