From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Fix UK spelling in comments and ChangeLog entries? Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:49:07 +0000 Message-ID: <20080630094906.GA2910@muc.de> References: <85skuva3zx.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1214817991 6477 80.91.229.12 (30 Jun 2008 09:26:31 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:26:31 +0000 (UTC) Cc: Juanma Barranquero , eliz@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org, rms@gnu.org, rgm@gnu.org To: David Kastrup Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Jun 30 11:27:13 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 1KDFfD-00053u-Vb for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:27:12 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:57516 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFeN-0005L3-AF for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:26:19 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFd4-00051J-Tc for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:24:58 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFcz-0004zH-Bm for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:24:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=57726 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KDFcy-0004yY-EC for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:24:52 -0400 Original-Received: from colin.muc.de ([193.149.48.1]:3484 helo=mail.muc.de) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1KDFcx-0001G0-CG for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:24:51 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 37954 invoked by uid 3782); 30 Jun 2008 09:24:44 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (pD9E23803.dip.t-dialin.net [217.226.56.3]) by colin2.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:24:40 +0200 Original-Received: (qmail 3755 invoked by uid 1000); 30 Jun 2008 09:49:07 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <85skuva3zx.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.5 (Fettercairn) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-kernel: by monty-python.gnu.org: FreeBSD 4.6-4.9 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:100206 Archived-At: Morning, David and everybody else! On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 07:25:22AM +0200, David Kastrup wrote: > "Juanma Barranquero" writes: > > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 00:05, Richard M Stallman wrote: > >> Are you accusing me of being inconsistent, then ;-)? > > Well, now that you mention it... > >> But here there is no sacrifice. If Glenn wants to spend his time > >> this way, why argue? > > Fair enough. My comments are only because I think some of the authors > > of the entries would want their linguistic flavour preserved. > 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? 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. > There is no need to invent hypothetical people to complicate things. Indeed not, when hypothetical people actually exist and are complicating things quite enough as it is. > > It is akin to making a pass and removing the lighthearted or ironic > > comments (and there are quite a few of them). > No, it isn't. I think it is. 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. > David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).