[Rd] not a typo in list.Rd

[Gabor Grothendieck]

On 8/18/06, Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> wrote:
> >>>>> "Gregor" == Gregor Gorjanc <gregor.gorjanc at bfro.uni-lj.si>
> >>>>>     on Fri, 18 Aug 2006 14:48:40 +0200 writes:
>
>    Gregor> Hin-Tak Leung wrote:
>    >> Gregor Gorjanc wrote:
>    >>> Hello!
>    >>>
>    >>> There is a tiny typo in list.Rd.
>    >>>
>    >>> Index: R/src/library/base/man/list.Rd
>    >>> ===================================================================
>    >>> --- ../man/list.Rd      (revision 38909)
>    >>> +++ ../man/list.Rd      (working copy)
>    >>> @@ -59,7 +59,7 @@
>    >>> inconsistent with functions such as \code{\link{as.character}}, and is
>    >>> for efficiency since lists can be expensive to copy.)
>    >>>
>    >>> -  \code{is.list} returns \code{TRUE} iff its argument
>    >>> +  \code{is.list} returns \code{TRUE} if its argument
>    >>>
>    >>
>    >> Those are not typo's - (there are two "iff"'s in that paragraph).
>    >> "iff" is a short-hand for "if and only if", in some culture.
>
>    Gregor> OK, I did not know that and I appologize for making noise on the list
>    Gregor> for this. However, I wonder how many people know this?
>
> I think I'd like to keep fostering a culture where this is
> known.  It's such a beatiful useful short concise language element.
> If you don't know,  nowadays there's Wikipedia where you can
> find it.
>
>    Gregor> It is fine to have some short-hands (as IMHO, RTFM,
>    Gregor> etc. in e-mails), but these can be an obstacle for
>    Gregor> exact understanding of the documentation, specially
>    Gregor> for non-english users.
>
> I knew what 'iff' means many years before I knew any of the
> above (and any other) e-mail acronyms, .... But that just shows
> how old I am....
>
> Martin

I think the documentation should be as clear as possible including
to non-English speakers and to non-mathematicians and that means
writing things out in full where there could be confusion.