bug#14976: [patch] use semicolons in option descriptions, not periods

[Benno Schulenberg]

Hello Pádraig,

On Sat, Aug 3, 2013, at 18:08, Pádraig Brady wrote:
>  -  -d, --directory            list directory entries instead of contents,
>  -                               and do not dereference symbolic links
>  +  -d, --directory            list just names of directories, not their 
> contents
> 
> So I was wondering why that clarification was added.
> I guess that it's obvious from the output for -l and -F
> that the symlink is being operated on: [...]
> whereas with -d it's not: [...]

Okay, I see.  Although I still think it's an unneeded detail in a
help text, the addition of "by default" makes it better.

> Also I don't like the "just names" in the new description as
> it might imply that it overrides -l or something.

Well, the phrase was taken from the info documentation, where it says:
"List just the names of directories, [...] rather than listing their 
contents."  :)  But I see your point.

The thing is, I have to read the phrase three times before I realize
that "directory entries" does not mean "entries OF directories" but
"entries that ARE directories".  The problematic word is "entries",
which makes me think of "items in a container", whereas in fact it
refers to "items on the command line", which requires some stretch
of the imagination.

So I propose the following change:

-  -d, --directory            list directory entries instead of contents,
+  -d, --directory            list directories themselves, not their contents,


(Oh, by the way, when you modify a patch, please make a note of this
in the log message -- I don't like to see changes that I would never
have made booked without further ado under my name.)

For the tail --follow thingy I have the following suggestion:

-                             -f and --follow[=descriptor] are equivalent\n\
+                             an absent option argument means 'descriptor'\n\

Regards,

Benno

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