From: "Richard M. Stallman" <rms@gnu.org>
Cc: drew.adams@oracle.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Inconsistency in meaning of "user options"
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 18:33:20 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1EmJe4-0002WP-6c@fencepost.gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <439E147E.3070700@student.lu.se> (message from Lennart Borgman on Tue, 13 Dec 2005 01:23:26 +0100)
>No, the meaning is not obvious, at least in American English. Something that
>is "custom" (e.g. a "custom motorcycle") is something that _has been_
>customized. The term to use for customizable is "customizable", not
>"custom".
>
>
Oh thanks, it is a bit hard with a foreign language. I would expect an
option that had been changed to be called "customized" perhaps, but not
"custom".
"Custom" as an adjective means "specialized for one party". The
motorcycle may have been made to your own specifications; if so, it is
a custom motorcycle, but it was not customized. It was custom-made.
To "customize" an existing thing means to "change it to be special for
one party". Thus, we speak about "customizing Emacs".
To say a thing is "customized" means that it "has been changed to be
special for one party."
To say a thing is "customizable" means it can be changed to be special
for one party.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2005-12-13 23:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2005-12-12 16:18 Inconsistency in meaning of "user options" Richard M. Stallman
2005-12-12 22:23 ` Drew Adams
2005-12-12 23:33 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-13 0:02 ` Drew Adams
2005-12-13 0:23 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-13 0:29 ` Drew Adams
2005-12-13 23:33 ` Richard M. Stallman [this message]
2005-12-13 23:32 ` Richard M. Stallman
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