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Re:Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Techni... by summarity on Thursday July 30, 2026 @06:50PM (#49116857)
Gotta love how the very first example in Issue 9 of the standard is already self-defeating:

> "Test" is an approved noun, but not an approved verb.

> STE: Test B is an alternative to test A.

So much for clear - unless you know the STE specific rule, the sentence is unambiguously ambiguous.

Direct access btw since the official site gates downloads with a Google form: https://www.asd-ste100.org/assets/files/ASD-STE100_ISSUE9.pd...

Re:Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Techni... by aesthesia on Thursday July 30, 2026 @07:37PM (#49117236)
How is that ambiguous? The best interpretation I can find where "test" is a verb is an elision: Test [that] B is an alternative to test A. That is an unlikely reading: "test" is a verb in the first instance and a noun in the second, breaking parallelism. And it's just a very unlikely thing to direct someone to do.
Re:Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Techni... by summarity on Thursday July 30, 2026 @09:55PM (#49118170)
"Test B is an alternative to test A."

could mean there's a Test B and a Test A, and they're interchangeable.

Or:

You can run Test B to confirm A works, that is "to test A".

Again the stated goal to clear documentation for non-native or limited-exposure speakers. This doesn't pass that test.

Re:Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Techni... by aesthesia on Friday July 31, 2026 @01:24AM (#49119304)
Ah, I see, taking "to test A" as an infinitive. But it would be strange to say test B is an alternative without saying what it's an alternative to. The other reading still seems quite unlikely.
Re:Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Techni... by dymk on Friday July 31, 2026 @02:15AM (#49119607)
The point of STE100 is to avoid ambiguity like this, though.
Re:Agent Skill to Force Docs in ASD-STE100 Simplified Techni... by thomascountz on Friday July 31, 2026 @02:52AM (#49119838)
The point of STE is to support technical writers who have knowledge of the matter and a style guide. In other words, STE will not make something unambiguous simply by replacing words. The example sentence is just to illustrate a grammar rule: "test" as a verb vs a noun. That is all. You should not assume an STE rule will disambiguate a single sentence pulled out of context.