Re: Variant spellings in GNU Emacs documentation

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Eli Zaretskii <eliz@elta.co.il> writes:

> > From: David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>
> > Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.bug
> > Date: 19 Jan 2004 00:16:30 +0100
> > > 
> > > Writing "MS-DOG" is a common practice for us--it is not an error.
> > 
> > It serves no useful purpose, in my opinion, and it makes creating
> > useful indices and keyword searches more difficult.
> 
> How so?  Please elaborate.

If you do a full-text search for MS-?DOS, you won't find the relevant
occurences.

> AFAIR, we have index entries in place to make this a non-issue.  If
> you have practical examples where these humorous names can hinder
> documentation, please post them, perhaps some improvements are in
> order.
> 
> > In addition, it makes one look like a hypocrite if one stresses
> > the importance of using the correct name for systems like
> > GNU/Linux.
> 
> Personally, I don't see anything wrong with testing the sense of
> humor of Emacs users.  Someone once posted an angry message about
> Antinews on similar grounds, but I don't think we must be that dead
> serious about these things.  We can always use a bit of smiling once
> in a while.
> 
> GNU/Linux is different: you don't laugh about the beliefs of people
> whom you respect.

Ok, so the sense of humor from Emacs users we are testing for is
demonstrated by laughing about the beliefs of people whom they don't
respect?

It's not exactly the definition of "humor" I would want to project.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum