From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Fix UK spelling in comments and ChangeLog entries? Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:55 +0200 Message-ID: <85iqvr8di8.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> References: <85skuva3zx.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <20080630094906.GA2910@muc.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1214819220 10341 80.91.229.12 (30 Jun 2008 09:47:00 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:47:00 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Juanma Barranquero , eliz@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org, rgm@gnu.org To: Alan Mackenzie Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jun 30 11:47:45 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KDFz3-0003E8-SI for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:47:42 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:52045 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFyD-0000SU-M5 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:46:49 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFv2-0006g6-8g for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:43:32 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFux-0006ej-Up for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:43:29 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=36933 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFuu-0006e4-TE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:43:26 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-in-07.arcor-online.net ([151.189.21.47]:48634) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KDFuV-0005H0-RZ; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:43:00 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-in-10-z2.arcor-online.net (mail-in-10-z2.arcor-online.net [151.189.8.27]) by mail-in-07.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id E9AA624ADC4; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:57 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from mail-in-06.arcor-online.net (mail-in-06.arcor-online.net [151.189.21.46]) by mail-in-10-z2.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D544923D395; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:57 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from lola.goethe.zz (dslb-084-061-001-092.pools.arcor-ip.net [84.61.1.92]) by mail-in-06.arcor-online.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6DBB35E71E; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:57 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: by lola.goethe.zz (Postfix, from userid 1002) id A75451D037BC; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:42:56 +0200 (CEST) In-Reply-To: <20080630094906.GA2910@muc.de> (Alan Mackenzie's message of "Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:49:07 +0000") User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.60 (gnu/linux) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.93/7407/Mon Jun 9 04:21:00 2008 on mail-in-06.arcor-online.net X-Virus-Status: Clean X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: Linux 2.4-2.6 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:100207 Archived-At: Alan Mackenzie writes: > Morning, David and everybody else! > > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 07:25:22AM +0200, David Kastrup wrote: > >> Well, those authors are presumably reading the Emacs developer list >> when they are bothered about what happens "downstream" with their >> contribution. So they can speak up for themselves. > > So I can. British spellings, etymologically more accurate, refined > and cultured, are clearly so superior to ignorant and vulgar > Americanisms, that it vexes me that Emacs has chosen to use the > latter. I mean, "color" is something you wear round your neck, isn't > it? You mean "collar". You should exhibit a better grasp of spelling if you want to make a convincing point. Anyway, the point is that Emacs _has_ chosen a language for its documentation. It would be out of place if I commented my contributions in German, so why should others document in British? We also have coding conventions we retain. > And surely if the Americans had had the moral character to retain > proper spelling, they wouldn't have brutishly, arrogantly and > indiscriminately kidnapped several hundred men, detained them > unlawfully in Cuba for many years and tortured them. Although this is > intuitively obvious, it's a little difficult to demonstrate > scientifically. Hey, I can't help the prejudices of my upbringing, > though I try. Sometimes. ;-) > > So, yes, on balance, I would prefer British spellings to be left alone > in my Changelog entries and comments, but if Greg or anybody else > wants to "correct" them, it won't really bother me at all. There's > more pressing things to worry about. The problem is that ChangeLog entries can become NEWS eventually, and comments become DOC strings. And all are things people tend to grep for. And yes, this thread has been about "anybody else" wanting to correct things, not about rejecting contributions or tying down resources people want to spend elsewhere. > In a way, it's a bit like rigorously (no asides here, please!) > enforcing a particular way of laying out C code; lots of coding shops > in the proprietary world try (mostly half-heartedly) to do this, and > most hackers just ignore the silly rules. Following them would wipe > out useful information about who wrote what. We have Elisp coding conventions in Emacs, and C coding conventions, and yes, adhering to them is strongly desired. Nobody complained about that as far as I remember. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum