three meanings of "lock" [PATCH]

Gareth McCaughan gareth.mccaughan at pobox.com
Mon Jan 23 13:33:24 CST 2006


I wrote:
> > >>> I think this could be improved by adding a brief section,
> > >>> perhaps somewhere under "Locking" or after the first use of
> > >>> the word "lock" or one of its cognates, on the meanings of "lock",
> > >>> and by taking a little care with terminology in places where
> > >>> there's most danger of confusion.
...
> Sounds sufficient to go ahead. If no patch from me appears in, say,
> the next week, anyone who cares about this should feel free to harass
> me.

So, here's a patch. I've added

  - a sidebar called "Three meanings of 'lock'" near the beginning
    of the "Locking" section, with a brief explanation of the
    two less-usual meanings and pointers to where they're discussed;

  - a little more information in svn.tour.other.cleanup about
    working copy locks (this is probably the most likely place
    where technical errors may have slipped in);

  - little warnings along the lines of "Don't confuse this sort
    of lock with that other sort of lock", with pointers to one
    of the two foregoing places, where it's seemed useful.

I believe that there's now no instance of the words "lock", "locks",
"locked" or "locking" in the Book where a reasonably attentive reader
could reasonably be confused as to which meaning is intended. It's
possible that I've gone too far and risked making readers feel patronized.

This patch is against revision 1946. "make valid" doesn't complain;
"make html" doesn't complain and the resulting version of the Book
looks OK. I haven't tried generating printable documentation.

Comments? (If there are none, then as far as I'm concerned
this is ready to go in. Otherwise, I'll revise as appropriate.)

-- 
Gareth McCaughan




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