Improve docs

2 files changed, 47 insertions, 38 deletions

diff --git a/README b/README
index c08b680..59f3436 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -1,15 +1,18 @@
 * Overview
 
-This package provides a set of C functions for splitting a string into
-words.  The splitting process is highly configurable and allows for
-considerable flexibility.  The default splitting rules are similar to
-those used in Bourne shell.  The splitting process includes tilde
-expansion, variable expansion, quote removal, command substitution,
-and path expansion.  Each of these phases can be turned off by the caller.
+This package provides a set of C functions for parsing input strings.
+Default parsing rules are are similar to those used in Bourne shell.
+This includes tilde expansion, variable expansion, quote removal, word
+splitting, command substitution, and path expansion.  Parsing is
+controlled by a number of settings which allow the caller to alter
+processing at each of these phases or even to disable any of them.
+Thus, wordsplit can be used for parsing inputs in different formats,
+from simple character-delimited entries, as in /etc/passwd, and up to
+complex shell statements.
 
 The following code fragment shows the basic usage:
 
-   /* This variable controls the splitting */
+   /* This variable controls parsing */
    wordsplit_t ws;
    int rc;
    
@@ -31,7 +34,7 @@ The following code fragment shows the basic usage:
    /* Reclaim the allocated memory */
    wordsplit_free(&ws);
 
-For a detailed discussion, please see the man page wordsplit.3 inluded
+For a detailed discussion, please see the man page wordsplit.3 included
 in the package.
 
 * Description
@@ -51,20 +54,25 @@ are for building the autotest-based testsuite:
 
 * Incorporating wordsplit into your project
 
-The project is designed to be used as a git submodule.  First, select
-the location DIR for the wordsplit directory within your project.  Then
-add the submodule:
+The project is designed to be used as a git submodule.  To incorporate
+it into your project, first select the location for the wordsplit
+directory within your project.  Then add the submodule at this
+location.  The rest is quite straightforward: you need to add
+wordsplit.c to your sources and add both wordsplit.c and wordsplit.h
+to the distributed files.
+
+The following will describe each step in detail.  For the rest of this
+discussion it is supposed that 'wordsplit' is the name of the location
+selected for the submodule.  It is also supposed that your project
+uses GNU autotools framework.  If you are using plain makefiles, these
+instructions are easy to convert to such use as well.
 
-  git submodule add git://git.gnu.org.ua/wordsplit.git DIR
+To add the submodule do:
 
-The rest is quite straightforward: you need to add wordsplit.c to your
-sources and add both wordsplit.c and wordsplit.h to the distributed files.
+  git submodule add git://git.gnu.org.ua/wordsplit.git wordsplit
 
-There are two methods of doing so: direct incorporation and
-incorporation via VPATH.  The discussion below will describe both
-methods based on the assumption that your project is using GNU
-autotools framework.  If you are using plain makefiles, these
-instructions are easy to convert to such use as well.
+There are two methods of including the sources to the project: direct
+incorporation and incorporation via VPATH.
 
 ** Direct incorporation
 
@@ -88,8 +96,8 @@ You can also put wordsplit.h in the noinst_HEADERS variable, if you like:
   noinst_HEADERS = wordsplit/wordsplit.h
   AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(srcdir)/wordsplit
 
-If you are building an installable library and wish to make wordsplit functions
-available, install wordsplit.h to $(pkgincludedir), e.g.
+If you are building an installable library and wish to export the
+wordsplit API, install wordsplit.h to $(pkgincludedir), e.g.
 
   lib_LTLIBRARIES = libmy.la
   libmy_la_SOURCES = main.c \
@@ -97,7 +105,7 @@ available, install wordsplit.h to $(pkgincludedir), e.g.
   AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(srcdir)/wordsplit
   pkginclude_HEADERS = wordsplit/wordsplit.h
 
-** Vpath-based incorporation
+** VPATH-based incorporation
 
 Modify the VPATH variable in your Makefile.am:
 
@@ -105,13 +113,13 @@ Modify the VPATH variable in your Makefile.am:
 
 Notice the use of "+=": it is necessary for the vpath builds to work.
 
-Define the nodist_program_SOURCES variable:
+Add wordsplit.c to the nodist_program_SOURCES variable:
 
   nodist_program_SOURCES = wordsplit.c
 
 The nodist_ prefix is necessary to prevent Make from trying to
 distribute this file from the current directory (where it doesn't
-exist of course).  It will find it using VPATH during compilation.
+exist of course).  During compilation it will be located using VPATH.
 
 Finally, add both wordsplit/wordsplit.c and wordsplit/wordsplit.h to
 the EXTRA_DIST variable and modify AM_CPPFLAGS as shown in the
@@ -196,7 +204,7 @@ Add the following lines to your configure.ac:
 
 ** lib/Makefile.am
 
-The makefile in lib must be modified to build the auxiliary program
+The Makefile.am in lib must be modified to build the auxiliary program
 wsp and create the testsuite script.  This is done by the following
 fragment:
 
@@ -228,17 +236,18 @@ fragment:
 * History
 
 First version of wordsplit appeared in March 2009 as a part of the
-Wydawca[1] project.  Its main usage there was to assist in
-configuration file parsing.  The parser subsystem proved to be quite
-useful and it soon forked into a separate project - Grecs[2].  This
-package had been since used (as a git submodule) in a number of other
-projects, such as GNU Dico[3] and Direvent[4], to name a few.
+Wydawca[1] project.  Its main usage was to assist in configuration
+file parsing.  The parser subsystem proved to be quite useful and
+soon evolved into a separate project - Grecs[2].  This package had been
+since used (as a git submodule) in a number of other projects, such as
+GNU Dico[3] and Direvent[4], to name a few.
 
 In 2010 the wordsplit sources were incorporated to the GNU
 Mailutils[5] package, where they replaced the obsolete argcv module.
 Mailutils uses its own configuration package, which meant that using
 Grecs was not expedient.  Therefore the sources had been exported from
-Grecs and are kept in sync with the changes in it.
+Grecs. Since then both Mailutils and Grecs versions are periodically
+synchronized.
 
 Several other projects, such as GNU Rush[6] and fileserv[7], followed
 the suite.  It was therefore decided that it would be advisable to
diff --git a/wordsplit.3 b/wordsplit.3
index 139c73e..e742030 100644
--- a/wordsplit.3
+++ b/wordsplit.3
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ The \fBWRDSF_ESCAPE\fR flag allows the caller to customize escape
 sequences.  If it is set, the \fBws_escape\fR member must be
 initialized.  This member provides escape tables for unquoted words
 (\fBws_escape[0]\fR) and quoted strings (\fBws_escape[1]\fR).  Each
-table is a string consisting of an even number of charactes.  In each
+table is a string consisting of an even number of characters.  In each
 pair of characters, the first one is a character that can appear after
 backslash, and the following one is its translation.  For example, the
 above table of C escapes is represented as 
@@ -600,10 +600,10 @@ flag must be set.  By default, it's value is \fB\(dq#\(dq\fR.
 Escape tables for unquoted words (\fBws_escape[0]\fR) and quoted
 strings (\fBws_escape[1]\fR).  These are used to translate escape
 sequences (\fB\\\fIC\fR) into characters.  Each table is a string
-consisting of even number of charactes.  In each pair of characters,
+consisting of even number of characters.  In each pair of characters,
 the first one is a character that can appear after backslash, and the
 following one is its representation.  For example, the string
-\fB\(dqt\\tn\\n\(dq\fR translates \fB\\t\fR into horisontal
+\fB\(dqt\\tn\\n\(dq\fR translates \fB\\t\fR into horizontal
 tabulation character and \fB\\n\fR into newline.
 .B WRDSF_ESCAPE
 flag must be set if this member is initialized.
@@ -755,8 +755,8 @@ Default flags.  This is a shortcut for:
  WRDSF_SQUEEZE_DELIMS |\
  WRDSF_CESCAPES)\fR,
 
-i.e.: disable variable expansion and quote substituton, perform quote
-removal, treat any number of consequtive delimiters as a single
+i.e.: disable variable expansion and quote substitution, perform quote
+removal, treat any number of consecutive delimiters as a single
 delimiter, replace \fBC\fR escapes appearing in the input string with
 the corresponding characters.
 .TP
@@ -807,7 +807,7 @@ flag is set, and error code is returned.  If this flag is set, the
 function is called instead.  This function is not supposed to return.
 .TP
 .B WRDSF_WS
-Trim off any leading and trailind whitespace from the returned
+Trim off any leading and trailing whitespace from the returned
 words.  This flag is useful if the \fIws_delim\fR member does not
 contain whitespace characters.
 .TP
@@ -1007,7 +1007,7 @@ Undefined variable.  This error is returned only if the
 \fBWRDSF_UNDEF\fR flag is set.
 .TP
 .B WRDSE_NOINPUT
-Input exhausted.  This is not acually an error.  This code is returned
+Input exhausted.  This is not actually an error.  This code is returned
 if \fBwordsplit\fR (or \fBwordsplit_len\fR) is invoked in incremental
 mode and encounters end of input string.  See the section
 .BR "INCREMENTAL MODE" .