[WP 34S] Final documentation check
#1

Seems we are slowly approaching the final stage of WP 34S. This means also the manual can become stable and will soon leave preliminary status. So I'd like to ask all of you who have a solid knowledge of written English and/or who are fond of logic: please read build 3199 and report whatever you find being not logical, plain wrong, strange, not correctly expressed, unclear, still missing, or incorrectly spelled. Don't you hesitate -- I'm looking forward getting a real lot of bug reports from you [:-)

Here's a link to said file for download. Read or browse, please, whatever you prefer. But don't just shake your head or frown -- report instead.

Thanks in advance :-)

#2

Here are a few edits:

pp. 5; " a full fledge WP 34S yourself"
should be "fully fledged..."

pp.6; "an HP-20b Business Consultant or an HP-30b Business Professional,"
should probably be "a HP-20b" and "a HP-30b". Throughout the whole document, really. You wouldn't say "an TI59". You shouldn't say "an HP41C". IMHO; debatable, I suppose.

footnote 1: "Still true though it was sold in 1988 already. " better worded "Still true even though it was first sold in 1988."

footnote 2: "The stopwatch requires a quartz and two capacitors added to the electronics." should be "requires a quartz crystal and..."

pp.7, "calculations in complex domain," should that be "calculations in the complex domain,"?

pp.7, "WP 34S is our humble approach – with the hardware given – to a future 43S we can only dream of becoming the successor of the HP-42S once."

reword:

"WP 34S is our humble effort - within the constraints of available hardware - to design a dream successor to the HP-42S."

pp.7, "Anyway, we promise we will continue improving WP 34S whenever it turns out being necessary – "

reword:

"We promise we will continue improving the WP 34S whenever it turns out to be necessary -"

#3

You can say "an HP 20b" or "an HP 30b" because when you pronounce the H there is a soft hidden vowel in saying H as 'e-tch", so using 'an' is ok!

Namir

#4

Quote:
pp.6; "an HP-20b Business Consultant or an HP-30b Business Professional,"
should probably be "a HP-20b" and "a HP-30b". Throughout the whole document, really. You wouldn't say "an TI59". You shouldn't say "an HP41C". IMHO; debatable, I suppose.

Not sure I agree. You wouldn't say "an TI59" because, when you pronounce "TI", it starts with a consonant. Similarly, you wouldn't say "a HP-20b" because when you pronounce "HP", it starts with a vowel sound (aich).
See the rules outlined here, specifically the case where an acronym starts with a consonant that has a vowel sound.

FWIW, I agree with your other suggestions.

Edited: 3 July 2012, 10:06 p.m.

#5

Quote:
you wouldn't say "a HP-20b" because when you pronounce "HP", it starts with a vowel sound (aich).

I've always written 'an HP' exactly because of this.

I remember one day at college we were translating a technical English text into Portuguese when everyone, including the Professor, got startled at an 'an' before the word LED. It took a while before I realized LED was pronounced actually as L.E.D. It happens we pronounce it here (in Brazil) as a single two-syllable word, /'1e-gee/, approximately.

#6

FET causes problems, too. The Wikipedia article on FET amplifiers has both "an FET" and "a FET". I always mentally pronounce the individual letters for some reason, so when I read "a FET" it seems odd to me.

Edited: 3 July 2012, 10:38 p.m.

#7

Thanks, Andrew, for your fast response. I took over almost all already besides the "a" ;-)

#8

Quote:
You can say "an HP 20b" or "an HP 30b" because when you pronounce the H there is a soft hidden vowel in saying H as 'e-tch", so using 'an' is ok!

Namir


My wife agrees. Something about an aspirated "h". It's an HP and it's a Hewlett Packard.

#9

Anywhere I've seen "emlator" instead of "emulator".

Can't remember the page number, but searching for this word will put you to the right place.

#10

More edits:

pp.9, "Once you got used to it you will most probably never employ a calculator featuring = again."
replace with
"Once you get used to it you will most probably never choose to use a calculator featuring = again."

pp.9,
"Part 2 of said manual will help you when you are heading for programming your WP 34S for quick and easy handling of repeated or iterative computations. Further documentation, also about other calculators mentioned in the following, will add valuable information – it is all readily accessible on a single DVD from said source."

replace with
"Part two of that manual will help you when you are programming your WP 34S and for quick and easy information on repeated and iterative computations. Further documentation, also including information about other calculators mentioned in this guide, is available on the DVD mentioned above."

pp.9, "... supplement presenting you all the new features. "
replace with
"supplement explaining all the new features."

pp.9, "nor a hypothetical"
replace:
"nor is it a hypothetical"

pp.9, "The following text starts presenting"
replace:
"The following text starts with presenting"

pp.9, "It continues demonstrating"
replace:
"It continues by demonstrating"

pp.9, "Then the major part of this booklet is taken by an index
of all operations featured and how to access them, as well as lists of all catalog contents provided."
replace:
"The major part of this guide contains an index of all available operations and how to access them, as well as lists of all catalog contents."

pp.10, "To conserve battery energy, your WP 34S shuts down some five minutes after you stopped using it – when you turn it on again, you can resume your work right where you left off."
there's a tense problem here "stopped/shuts down" replace:
"To conserve battery energy, your WP 34S shuts down approximately 5 minutes after you stop using it - when you turn it on again, you can resume your work right where you left off."
i.e, say "it shuts down after you stop" or "it shut down after you stopped". But not "it shuts down after you stopped." one is past tense and the other is present.

pp.10, "are printed below of them on the key plate."
replace: "are printed below them on the key plate."
although "key plate" is an obscure term. I'd say "on the main body of the calculator". But anyway,just fixing "below of them" to "below them" will be OK.

Edited: 4 July 2012, 10:02 a.m.

#11

Thanks. Found on p. 161 :-)

#12

pp.11, "f, g, and h allow for easily accessing a multiple of the 37 primary functions this hardware can take."
replace:
"f, g, and h allow for selection of alternate functions for the 37 keys available on the calculator"

pp.11, " rectangular shape You". Insert full-stop before "You".

pp.11, footnote 4, "But the example will work with meters as well."
replace?: everywhere else but USA the correct spelling is "metres". A meter is a measuring device. A metre is a length. If you're truly, as you're claiming, aiming at international readers -- then don't pander to the USA-centric oddball spelling.

pp.11, footnote: „comma people“
replace with "comma people"

Edited: 4 July 2012, 10:02 a.m.

#13

How about "keyboard plane" instead of "key plate"?

#14

Andrew, thanks again :-) Just one remark about the kind of English: American English saves me considerable printing space by calling a catalogue (British English) a catalog - so I chose AE for space reasons, thus I have to use meters for metres now ;-)

#15

Not to forget the colo(u)red shift keys ;)

#16

And program(me)s.

#17

Lots of reasons :-)

#18

"An HP" here too. 'An' before vowels and H is the rule I was taught.


- Pauli

#19

Anybody else coming across "key plate"?



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