Subject: Re: bug#5991: [bug#5958 PATCH] docs: document translation of obsolete sort syntax

From: Jim Meyering <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:19:43 +0200

Pádraig Brady wrote:
> On 20/04/10 23:33, Eric Blake wrote:
>> * doc/coreutils.texi (sort invocation): Mention the conversion.
>> How about this followup, copying the comment from PÃ¡draig's patch into
>> our documentation?

Thanks.

>> diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
...
>> +The sequence @samp{sort +@var{a}.@var{x} -@var{b}.@var{y}}
>> +translates to @samp{sort -k@var{a+1}.@var{x+1},@var{b}} if @var{y}
>> +is @samp{0} or absent, otherwise it translates to @samp{sort
>> +-k@var{a+1}.@var{x+1},@var{b+1}.@var{y}}.
>
> Looks good.
> Hopefully this will encourage people to change from the old to new format.
> Perhaps s/translates/is equivalent/; s/-k/-k /;

Another suggestion, to make it clearer why you'll want to convert:

s/The/The obsolete/