Update to the comments at the start of mc.ext

[mc-hobbit]

I would like to propose using the attached file at the start of the mc.ext file. Changes include:

• Update the formatting to put keywords, their description, and additional comments on lines by themselves, following established conventions used by man pages
• Remove references to version 3.0 (version 4.0 was released nearly twenty years ago)
• Use "i.e." (Latin, "id est", or "that is") and "e.g." ("example") as appropriate
• Update the English in many places

[mc-hobbit]

Proposed update to mc.ext comments

[zaytsev-work]

Could you please supply a patch at least in form of git --diff? Better even would be to checkout the development tree (git clone ...), make your changes, commit them (git commit -a -s) and attach the patch produced with git format-patch HEAD~. This will also provide us with correct authorship information for credits.

[andrew_b]

Related to #3681.

[mc-hobbit]

Yes, I'll do the checkout, update, and commit, and attach the diff (I'm assuming you want it attached to the bug.) This will take me a few days as I'm also busy with other stuff. As part of my changes I'll include the comment noted in bug 3681.

[mc-hobbit]

Patch for tickets 3681 and 3742

[zaytsev]

Ticket #3681 has been marked as a duplicate of this ticket.

[zaytsev]

Hi, I've checked your edits, and in general it looks very good, but

• this local temporal file -> this local temporary file?
• it seems to me that the part about environment variables is now wrong

You wrote:

	# COMMAND is any one-line shell command, with the following substitutions: 
...
	#    %p or $MC_EXT_BASENAME 

In fact, $MC_EXT_BASENAME will NOT be substituted in the COMMAND, but rather an environment variable MC_EXT_BASENAME will be set and when the COMMAND is executed, it can pull the value of %p out of this environment variable. This was reflected in the old text, however bad it was, but in the new text the meaning is completely lost.

It would be great if you could fix that, so that I can commit the patch... You can edit the file and then git add ... & git commit --amend update your commit.

[mc-hobbit]

I'll double-check the documentation and fix or clarify as needed.

[mc-hobbit]

Remove reference to $MC_* variables and change 'temporal' to 'temporary'

[mc-hobbit]

I've removed the references to the MC_* variables. I also changed temporal to read temporary, although I note the original phrasing has been there for at least twenty years. (I found a copy of the source for mc-3.2.11 at ​http://archive.kernel.org/redhat-archive/redhat/linux/4.2/en/os/i386/SRPMS/mc-3.2.11-2.src.rpm. The mc.ext.in file is dated 1 October 1996.)

[mc-hobbit]

Remove '#' from text "KEYWORD is one of the # following"

[andrew_b]

Replying to mc-hobbit:

• Remove references to version 3.0 (version 4.0 was released nearly twenty years ago)

In addition to that, we should remove references to version 3.0 in error messages: src/filemanager/ext.c:832 and src/filemanager/ext.c:853.

[jack99999]

Replying to mc-hobbit:

• Use "i.e." (Latin, "id est", or "that is") and "e.g." ("example") as appropriate

many people get confused by, or do not understand, latin abbreviations. it is better to stick with "that is" and "for example".

you can easily find many hits about the confusion if you search for 'i.e. and e.g. confusion'.

here are some snippets just to get you going:

from ​http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/23/government-bans-latin-abbreviations-on-its-websites-to-avoid-con/

The government is to ban all Latin abbreviations on all its websites to avoid
confusing non-English speakers, it has been announced.

Phrases such as etc, ie, and eg will be phased out from all GOV.UK sites because
foreign speakers find them “difficult to read”.

from ​https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2016/07/20/changes-to-the-style-guide-no-more-eg-and-ie-etc/

eg, etc and ie

‘eg’ can sometimes be read aloud as ‘egg’ by screen reading
software. Instead use ‘for example’ or ‘such as’ or 'like' or ‘including’ -
whichever works best in the specific context.

‘etc’ can usually be avoided. Try using ‘for example’ or ‘such as’ or
‘including’. Never use ‘etc’ at the end of a list starting with ‘for
example’ or ‘such as’ or ‘including’.

‘ie’ - used to clarify a sentence - isn’t always well understood. Try
(re)writing sentences to avoid the need to use it. If that isn’t possible,
use an alternative such as ‘meaning’ or ‘that is’.

from ​http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/ie-versus-eg

Misusing these two abbreviations is one of the top five mistakes I used to see
when editing technical documents. There's so much confusion that in some of the
drafts I got back from clients they had actually crossed out the right
abbreviation and replaced it with the wrong one.

from ​https://www.thoughtco.com/commonly-confused-latin-abbreviations-1692754

These days, a safe rule for using Latin abbreviations (such as etc., e.g., et
al., and i.e.) is not to use them at all.

[andrew_b]

(In #4141) Branch: 4141_mc.ext.ini
Initial changeset:67ec86b570be80da4670b57ae42be4ea71f8bb63

mx.ext was moved to INI format from custom one (yet another step to format unification). This allows to implement a task written in the ticket sunmmary.

This is alsow fixes #2773 and #3742.

[andrew_b]

Done in [d9eeec9a5a74cae570992e9665eea7dd5ae7a98b].