doc: give some guidelines for error messages

Clarify error message puntuation to reduce review workload.

Signed-off-by: Philip Oakley <philipoakley@iee.org>
Helped-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

diff --git a/Documentation/CodingGuidelines b/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
index f424dbd75c80abb4d6fecce18f6fc25859bdcb00..f4137c68ff80647644cc1f3d45d24457f505e2a0 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
+++ b/Documentation/CodingGuidelines
@@ -264,6 +264,15 @@ For Python scripts:
    documentation for version 2.6 does not mention this prefix, it has
    been supported since version 2.6.0.
 
    documentation for version 2.6 does not mention this prefix, it has
    been supported since version 2.6.0.
 

+Error Messages
+
+ - Do not end error messages with a full stop.
+
+ - Do not capitalize ("unable to open %s", not "Unable to open %s")
+
+ - Say what the error is first ("cannot open %s", not "%s: cannot open")
+
+

 Writing Documentation:
 
  Most (if not all) of the documentation pages are written in the
 Writing Documentation:
 
  Most (if not all) of the documentation pages are written in the