From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs,gmane.emacs.pretest.bugs Subject: bug#1476: 23.0.60; spelling of (un)writeable should be (un)writable Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 07:25:37 -0800 Message-ID: <007c01c9555b$655df0d0$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> References: <001601c954d2$1362b0b0$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> <007701c9554d$1a7619c0$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> <007a01c95558$417a31e0$0200a8c0@us.oracle.com> Reply-To: Drew Adams , 1476@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1228318291 18683 80.91.229.12 (3 Dec 2008 15:31:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 15:31:31 +0000 (UTC) Cc: 'Lawrence Mitchell' , bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org, 1476@emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com, emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org To: "'Juanma Barranquero'" Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 03 16:32:35 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1L7tiD-0001Sy-EY for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; 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Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:25:27 -0800 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Thread-Index: AclVWL4BgN4sRG4ZRYu2JQd5omeuiAAAGFvw X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3350 In-Reply-To: X-Source-IP: acsmt703.oracle.com [141.146.40.81] X-Auth-Type: Internal IP X-CT-RefId: str=0001.0A010202.4936A4E9.0020:SCFSTAT928724,ss=1,fgs=0 X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 1) X-CrossAssassin-Score: 3 X-detected-operating-system: by monty-python.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 3) Resent-Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:30:27 -0500 X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:22907 gmane.emacs.pretest.bugs:23454 Archived-At: > > But Emacs has standardized on American spelling. American > > usage generally drops a final "e" when adding suffix "able". > > If that is your argument (and I'm OK with it, BTW), you should have > said so, and not pass one of the alternatives as less correct, or > uncommon, or obsolete. I took it as understood that Emacs uses American spelling (we've been through that before, right Juanma?). And I never said that "writeable" was obsolete. "Writeable" is less correct _for Emacs_, because Emacs tries to adopt common usage and American spelling. I specifically cited other software bug reports for "writeable" and argued for consistency on that basis. IOW, it's not just American usage; it is a more common usage (as you yourself showed using Google), and especially so in software. I quoted the `findutils' bug that showed that `ispell' doesn't recognize "writeable". It is `ispell' that passed "writeable" off as less correct. Support by software tools is the kind of thing that should be important to us, not whether OED finds that it's OK to use either spelling. This is not about OED vs Webster's or the Brits vs the Yanks. It's about helping Emacs users. My argument from the beginning (see the bug report) was that "writeable" is less helpful because Emacs users looking for it (e.g. with grep, ispell, Emacs search) will be less likely to find it.