Who is "it" in "its"

[Daniel Shahaf]

C. Michael Pilato wrote on Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 10:53:07 -0400:
> On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 10:45 AM wuzhouhui <wuzhouhui14 at mails.ucas.ac.cn>
> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm reading the appendix A of svnbook, one sentence says:
> >
> > > While Subversion is able to use Apache HTTP Server (or, httpd) as one of
> > > its network server programs, its dependence on APR does not mean that
> >                                ^^^
> > > httpd is a required component.
> >
> > I'm just a little confused about "it" in "its", who is "it"? httpd or
> > Subversion?
> >
> 
> It == Subversion in this context.

That's true for both instances of "its" in that sentence.

Also, I think that sentence could be clarified.  There's no need to say "X does
not mean Y"; we can simply say "¬Y".  So, how about this?

I switched to hard line breaks at sentence breaks for readability.  (Doesn't
affect generated output.)

[[[
Index: appa-quickstart.xml
===================================================================
--- appa-quickstart.xml	(revision 5963)
+++ appa-quickstart.xml	(working copy)
@@ -30,12 +30,16 @@
       APR—the Apache Portable Runtime library.  The APR library
       provides all the interfaces that Subversion needs to function on
       different operating systems: disk access, network access, memory
-      management, and so on.  While Subversion is able to use Apache
-      HTTP Server (or, <command>httpd</command>) as one of its network
-      server programs, its dependence on APR <emphasis>does
-      not</emphasis> mean that <command>httpd</command> is a required
-      component.  APR is a standalone library usable by any
-      application.  It does mean, however, that Subversion clients and
+      management, and so on.</para>
+
+    <para>While the APR library is part of the Apache HTTP Server (or,
+      <command>httpd</command>), and <command>httpd</command> can be configured
+      to serve Subversion repositories, <command>httpd</command> is
+      <emphasis>not</emphasis> a required component of a Subversion
+      installation.
+      APR is a standalone library usable by any application.
+      Subversion's dependency on APR does mean, however, that Subversion
+      clients and
       servers run on any operating system
       that <command>httpd</command> runs on: Windows, Linux, all
       flavors of BSD, Mac OS X, NetWare, and others.</para>
]]]

Cheers,

Daniel