`over'

[dhog@plan9.cs.su.oz.au dhog@plan9.cs.su.oz.au]

>   But as I said, while it is possible to construe the phrase "install
>over the second through last partitions" in a manner parallel to the
>sense in which most speakers of English will I am sure immediately
>understand the phrase "paint over the second through last letters", I
>seriously doubt that possibility is the one which will occur *first*
>in the minds of most speakers of English, and that IMO makes it much
>more likely than it needs to be in this case that a key point will be
>missed even if every first-time plan9 installer reads `errata.html'.

I'm sorry, but if you write sentences like that, then you are in no position
to argue.  :-)  If the erratum had contained that many dependent clauses
then the "most speakers of English" might have been forgiven for
misunderstanding it!  As it is, I believe anyone misunderstanding the phrase
in the way that you suggest is not competent to switch their computer on,
let alone install an operating system.  People who do not understand the
meaning of phrases such as "install over" will probably not understand
other phrases such as "DOS partition", "operating system" or "hard disk".

You make it seem like everything is riding on the interpretation of the
one phrase "install over", but the whole paragraph warns the user in
3 different ways that there is a problem if they have more than one
partition.  I would consider it much more likely that our friend who
lost his linux partition didn't read the errata list at all, rather than read
it and misinterpretted it in the way that you suggest.

Sorry about all the flamage, I haven't been the same since I started
administering MS Windows (spit!) for a living.  :-(