[erlang-questions] 'cannot' /= 'can not'

[Raimo Niskanen]

Please have a look at and evaluate GitHub PR#1891:

  https://github.com/erlang/otp/pull/1891


On Tue, Jul 24, 2018 at 11:02:43AM +0200, empro2@REDACTED wrote:
> This is only the most recent occurrence that finally
> makes me write this:
> 
> <quote>
> [erlang-questions] Patch package OTP 20.3.8.3 released
> Tue, 24 Jul 2018 09:13:22 +0200
> [...]
> Note! The kernel-5.4.3.2 application can *not* be applied
>       independently of other applications on an arbitrary
>       OTP 20 installation.
> [...]
> </quote>
> 
> If it can not be applied independently then it can also be
> applied independently - which, in this case, is
> probably not what is meant. But this is guesswork, relying
> on the reader already knowing the meaning of what is
> being said, rendering the saying it much less useful.
> 
> Modals are a mess (spoken languages are, after ceturies of
> abuse like the one discussed in "[erlang-questions] Orelse
> and andalso as short-hand for case"), but they convey
> critical meaning.
> 
> Nine(?) of ten "can not"s in the Erlang docs must be
> "cannot" to convey the correct meaning. Reading the docs has
> already made me convert every "can not" I read into
> "cannot" - I mean *every*, not only those in the Erlang
> docs - and then back again (only about 1 of 10 in the
> Erlang docs). This is a real, and substantial, waste of
> post-orbital CPU cycles; not the conversion itself, but the
> distraction from understanding whatever meaning the author
> actually tries to get across.
> 
> If someone with authority (and authorisation) could and
> would please write and run a script and convert all "can
> not" -> "cannot" in all OTP strings, binaries and comments?
> This will introduce errors, as there actually are a few,
> rare correct "can not"s, but it will correct about 9 times
> more of wrong ones that really need to be "cannot".
> 
> At least in the doc strings?
> 
> Please?
> 
> Michael
> 
> -- 
> 
> Time is not money, but money is time: life-time people have
> spent transforming their environment.
> 
> 

-- 

/ Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB