Re: Fix UK spelling in comments and ChangeLog entries?

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

Hi, Kenichi,

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 09:16:25PM +0900, Kenichi Handa wrote:

> Anyway, for me (a non native English speeker), the more helpful thing
> is to standardise which word to use (e.g. remove/delete,
> replace/substitute, accept/permit/allow, preserve/retain,
> put/set/store, property/attribute, vector/array, go-to/move-to,
> cancel/undo, etc.) :-p

NO!!  Different words have different meanings.  For example, if you
delete something, it's gone.  If you remove something, you can later put
it back again.

You might substitute a fresh football player for a tired one, but you'd
replace a broken light bulb (answer, it only takes one Emacs hacker to
change a light bulb).

And so on.

There a few pairs of words indeed in English in which one means exactly
the same as the other.  It is surely the same in other languages.  Let us
strive, always, to use the most fitting word, and to preserve and retain
the fine control this gives us over our meanings.

> Kenichi Handa

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).