Re: Various draft problems

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From: Clive D.W. Feather (clive@demon.net)
Date: Fri Apr 20 2001 - 04:40:50 CDT


John Stanley said:
> Clive D.W. Feather (clive@demon.net):
>
>> Yes. But, from experience, I can tell you that having two normative
>> sections of text saying the same thing is very dangerous. Because if they
>> disagree, you're in real trouble.
>
> A fairer summary of this draft I've never heard. Saying the same thing in
> two places is bad because if they don't say the same thing you're in
> trouble. But if they don't say the same thing, you aren't saying the same
> thing in two places. Will someone in the real world translate this from
> Swedish for the rest of us?

Why are you so gratuitously rude ?

It is dangerous to have two normative pieces of text that address the
same area. In this example, to have a list of (e.g.) "local" headers in one
place and to have each header saying whether it is local in another place.
This is because, should the two sections disagree, nobody can determine
which is correct.

Note that "disagree" is not the same thing as "don't say the same thing".

What is hard to understand about this ? Apart from for Swedophobes ?

-- 
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