Who is "it" in "its"

[C. Michael Pilato]

On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 12:40 PM Daniel Shahaf <d.s at daniel.shahaf.name>
wrote:

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

I appreciate the stab at a rewrite.  I think there are further edits that
would aid comprehension.


>
> [[[
> 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.
>

This sentence fights conceptually against the previous statement about the
APR library being "part of the Apache HTTP Server".  (How can it a part of
one thing and yet independent?)  I don't believe it's necessary to address
the nuance.  We aren't here to sell the merits of APR in the general case.
Rather, let's remove the unnecessary sentence:

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>
> ]]]
>

This final bit of the edit persists (and actually worsens) a false
correlation.  It's not strictly Subversion's *dependency* on APR that
allows it to run anywhere httpd runs.  Maybe something like the following
more closely expresses the desired intent?

But because they interact with the operating system through the abstraction
layer that APR provides, Subversion clients and servers are able to run on
any operating system that other APR-based applications (including
<command>httpd</command>) run on: Windows, Linux, all flavors of BSD, Mac
OS X, NetWare, and others.
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