Treewide: reword according to technical writer best practices.#1223
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hsjobeki wants to merge 7 commits intoNixOS:masterfrom
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Treewide: reword according to technical writer best practices.#1223hsjobeki wants to merge 7 commits intoNixOS:masterfrom
hsjobeki wants to merge 7 commits intoNixOS:masterfrom
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hsjobeki
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Mar 28, 2026
hsjobeki
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- Remove fillers
- Remove exclamation marks in prose.
- Replace 'we'
- Use present tense and imperative consistently
- Split up long sentences
- Remove filler intros and vague quantifiers
Drop 'world-class', 'powerful', 'tremendously', and 'show off the power' from prose. Replace with plain, specific language.
Replace all instances of "in order to" with "to" across 7 files. One instance also restructured from passive to active voice.
Replace exclamation marks with periods in technical prose across 9 files. Keeps exclamation marks in program output (e.g. 'Hello, world!').
Tutorials should address the reader as "you" or use impersonal forms. Replace ~20 instances of "we" that referred to the reader with "you", imperative mood, or passive constructions. Keep "we" where it refers to the documentation authors.
Replace 'you will ...' with present tense or imperative mood in tutorial instructions. Future tense is kept only where it describes something that literally happens later in a sequence.
Break sentences exceeding 25 words into shorter ones for readability. Each split preserves the original meaning.
- Remove 'this guide will show you' and 'the following list illustrates' meta-commentary - Replace 'various methods' and 'a number of problems' with direct phrasing - Replace 'several good options' with specific recommendation - Simplify verbose style guide phrasing - Remove filler sentence from contributing docs - Remove 'It'\''s good practice' framing where the next sentences already explain why
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