raspberrypi
Use of "Old English" circa 1400 "whilst" throughout the Raspberry Pi Documentation
This is more a suggestion than a bug (but can read like a literal train-wreck). Throughout the documentation (e.g. Pico Getting Started Guide, or the RP2040 datasheet, e.g. pp. 560), the word "whilst" is used where "while" is meant.
Example from RP2040 Datasheet
While the word "whilst" can mean "while" (from the Old-English "hwile", circa 1200), it can also mean "amidst" (among, against, betwixt). So not only is the use of "whilst" an anachronism, it leads to ambiguity in the documentation where the reader must know from context which definition is intended.
Proper technical documentation (as well as legal pleadings) require "The Plain Language Rule" be followed. Where "while" is meant, use "while", not a 600+ year old related word "whilst".
That said, this is also a "tip of the hat" to the subtle use of flourish in the documentation. That can also be appreciated, but for clearly conveying technical information in the least ambiguous way, it should be avoided.
Since this is a global issue with the documentation, no pull-request was made. If this is to be remedied, the doc maintainers are in a better position to run sed than a user creating a pull request on all affected documents and hacking away on his (or her) own.
I'm not sure how many others notice or care, but as a professional aerospace engineer for 35 years and a practicing attorney for the past 29, the English language is something I've spent a fair bit of time with. The documentation would read more clearly letting "while" be "while", but I'll leave it to your discretion whether it is something worth messing with.
I often use the first meaning whilst writing; and I've never heard of the second meaning that you give. Perhaps this is just a difference between UK-English and US-English? 🤷 But I'm happy to defer to @helenlynn and @JeuneseRPi here - perhaps they can add some guidance / clarification to https://github.com/raspberrypi/style-guide/blob/master/style-guide.md
