Re: "Seed crystals" (was: "Regionalism" and "Another think coming")

[Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM>]

Steve Owens quotes somebody, I forget who:

> > 2. Displays:
> >    According to all my dictionaries, the verb "display" is transitive
> >    unless referring to mating behaviour in birds and animals.  Yet I
> >    see the following usage a lot from certain sources:
> >
> >    "A progress message displays in the Message Window."

>         This is one I particularly don't care for, and I care even less
> for the short form of "A progress message displays."  It's policy in our
> department (active "displays" vs. passive "is displayed") so I generally
> try to write around it rather than fight it.

There's a translatability issue here in using "display" as a verb,
especially if you use it elsewhere in the same document as a noun. If
you don't do that, you're ok.

Adopting a user's point of view, in the above situation, you can always
describe what the user sees. For example,

"Issue the YOYO command. You see a progress message in the Message
Window."

Or something like that.

Hey, if you think I've got all the answers, well you've got, oh, never
mind. 8-)

|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer |"That's a, I say, that's a JOKE,    |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA| son." - Foghorn Leghorn            |
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| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|