Bug 5912 – Small typos throughout Phobos and DMD documentation

These are from the 2.052 release. std.range: line 207: returns $(D false) iff change to: returns $(D false) if line 580: iff the range supports change to: if the range supports line 1982: iff there are no more change to: if there are no more line 2843: offers random access iff change to: offers random access if std.conv: line 3839: Give an unsigned iff change to: Give an unsigned if std.encoding: line 1298: Returns true iff change to: Returns true if std.traits: line 2225: Returns $(D true) iff change to: Returns $(D true) if std.variant: line 251: Returns: true iff change to: Returns: true if src/dmd/backend/el.c: line 2031: Needed iff floating point change to: Needed if floating point It looks like someone needs a new keyboard! :)

(In reply to comment #0) > It looks like someone needs a new keyboard! :) Well, ffffudge that!

Meh. "iff" means "if and only if". I'd say WONTFFFFFIX. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iff

(In reply to comment #2) > "iff" means "if and only if". Kenny's right.

Wow, I've never heard of this before. Do you expect non-english readers to know about this in advance? On the upside it does seem to be a proper word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_and_only_if But if it saves you a couple of bytes of precious and expensive hard drive space (dollars per gallon of bytes is expensive these days!) then go for it!

(In reply to comment #4) > Wow, I've never heard of this before. Do you expect non-english readers to know > about this in advance? I have no idea what non-native english speakers know about various jargons of english, and I don't think it's fair to presumptively patronize anyone by dumbing down the use of technical jargon. I've seen iff used by math/science types in and since college. Note that Andrei learned english rather late in life, and he's the author of some of those instances. If there are terms someone isn't familiar with, there's no harm in asking. We're happy to help.

The general Merriam-Webster dictionary lists the word (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/iff) which supports closing the bug as invalid. Thanks Andrej for the scrutiny.

I have come out too harsh in my reply, apologies to Walter && Andrei. Now that I've actually learned what it means I've noticed it does seem to be present in a lot of other projects' documentation files around the 'net. I probably never even noticed 'iff' before since I've never known it had a special meaning, so I assumed it was just a common typo. It does seem that some people prefer italicizing 'iff' to make it stand out more in the documentation. Anyway, this is bikeshedding. I'm sorry iff I've wasted anyone's time here. :)

May I suggest using the HTML "abbr" tag for this?