[kde-doc-english] Re: userguide_kde-for-admins and boilerplate

Brad Hards bradh at frogmouth.net
Mon Apr 18 22:51:30 CEST 2005


On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 05:22 am, Nick Shaforostoff wrote:
> Can smb explain what means 'boiler plate' (and 'more boiler plate') here:
> http://docs.kde.org/en/HEAD/kdebase/userguide/customizing-kde.html#boilerpl
>ate
I probably would have written it as "boilerplate", but the intent is the same:
It is just some standardised text that must always appear - the user shouldn't 
worry about what it means. The expression is common in big organisations 
(companies / governments). A legal disclaimer is an example of "boilerplate" 
text. In English (at least as I use it), the word has connotations of "stuff 
that no-one reads anyway".

That usage isn't exactly correct in this context though - the first line is 
actually checked by the program to make sure it is there, so that it doesn't 
try to interpret some meaning into a random file that just happens to have 
the right extension. It is called a "group header" - see 
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s02.html

The "more boiler plate" is also important - Type= shows what type of .desktop 
entry this part of the file relates to. See 
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s04.html for 
the list of supported types.

A couple of suggestions - try explaining that to your user, or just put in 
something like "don't worry about what this means, just make sure you put it 
in"

> and btw it seems that footnotes 3 and 4 are shifted (
> 3 should be at SwallowExec= and
> 4 should be at Name=Ksirc
> )
Indeed.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-doc-english/attachments/20050419/9efe5a47/attachment.sig 


More information about the kde-doc-english mailing list