From Fedora Project Wiki

Anaconda Messagification -- Suggestions on Readability and Style

  • Sentence fragments can be okay, but they shouldn't be punctuated as sentences.
    • They're usually only okay in the case of a dialog box where the title provides an implied subject for the fragment in the dialog.
  • Don't use elipses. There's really just no place for dramatic pause in what we're presenting.
  • Exclaimation points should be avoided. The fact that we're starting text mode is not exciting, it's somber and depressing.
  • Avoid statements of ownership. Custom partitioning is not "specifying your own partitioning", it's just specifying partitioning.
  • Dialog titles should specify a category, not the verb which is being done within that category. "Running" does not tell a user to what the dialog refers.
  • Avoid jargon and abreviations that aren't in common usage outside of Anaconda. We do not run scripts "post-install", we run "post-installation scripts". Also, one provides "configuration files", not "config files" or merely "configs".
  • Log messages should not be translated.
  • Don't use prefixes meaning "before" and "after" as if they're separate words. Always "post-installation", never "post installation".