bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Stefan Kangas]

Severity: wishlist

The "case fold" terminology is too technical and not very user-friendly.
In other software, in most user-facing contexts, it is called "ignore
case".

Please consider renaming all variables, commands, and documentation to
refer to "ignore case" instead of "case folding".

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Lars Ingebrigtsen]

Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:

> The "case fold" terminology is too technical and not very user-friendly.
> In other software, in most user-facing contexts, it is called "ignore
> case".
>
> Please consider renaming all variables, commands, and documentation to
> refer to "ignore case" instead of "case folding".

I agree that "ignore case" would be better, but it somehow seems like
most people don't have much problem with the "case folding" terminology?

In any case, I think renaming all the functions and variables here would
not be worth the churn -- there's quite a lot of them.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Stefan Kangas]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> I agree that "ignore case" would be better, but it somehow seems like
> most people don't have much problem with the "case folding" terminology?

I had to look up the exact meaning today, FWIW.

(I confused myself on whether or not "case folding" is the same as
"ignore case" or its inverse.)

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Visuwesh]

[செவ்வாய் ஜூலை 05, 2022] Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:

> Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:
>
>> The "case fold" terminology is too technical and not very user-friendly.
>> In other software, in most user-facing contexts, it is called "ignore
>> case".
>>
>> Please consider renaming all variables, commands, and documentation to
>> refer to "ignore case" instead of "case folding".
>
> I agree that "ignore case" would be better, but it somehow seems like
> most people don't have much problem with the "case folding" terminology?

I find the term really hard to remember too.  I wonder if we can define
an apropos alias for "case fold" in `apropos-synonyms' but I think that
only handles single words.

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Stefan Kangas]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> In any case, I think renaming all the functions and variables here would
> not be worth the churn -- there's quite a lot of them.

On the other hand, you only need to do it once.

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Phil Sainty]

On 2022-07-06 04:59, Lars Ingebrigtsen wrote:
> Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se> writes:
>> The "case fold" terminology is too technical and not very
>> user-friendly.  In other software, in most user-facing contexts,
>> it is called "ignore case".

"Ignore case" is in fact the precise term used in the "Default search
options" menu, so we do already cater to newcomers in that way.

"Case" isn't the only thing that can be "folded" though, and I don't
think "ignore" is always a good verb.  I don't think `replace-char-fold'
should be `replace-char-ignore'.

OTOH we do already have more than one term for this, unfortunately.
"lax-whitespace" should probably use the "fold" terminology too?

I agree that "fold" isn't intuitive to newcomers, but I also think
it's good to try to limit the number of different terms used to
express a concept.


-Phil

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Stefan Kangas]

Phil Sainty <psainty@orcon.net.nz> writes:

> I agree that "fold" isn't intuitive to newcomers, but I also think
> it's good to try to limit the number of different terms used to
> express a concept.

Agreed, though I would add that it isn't intuitive to old users either
(case in point: me).  So let's start moving in the right direction.

bug#56401: "Case folding" should be called "ignore case"

[Po Lu via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> writes:

> In any case, I think renaming all the functions and variables here would
> not be worth the churn -- there's quite a lot of them.

+1.  For what it's worth, the glossary in the Emacs manual also tells
you what "Case Folding" means.