Konrad Hinsen <konrad.hinsen@fastmail.net> writes:

> Clément Lassieur <clement@lassieur.org> writes:
>
>> This has been discussed there:
>> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2012-02/msg00649.html.
>>
>> :-)
>
> Well, then... I don't expect anything else than a proclamation by Richard
> Stallman can settle the question ;-)

Wolfgang

    On Thu, Feb 23 2012, Glenn Morris wrote:
    > A critical question. What is the standard form in GNU manuals for using
    > the possessive apostrophe with singular nouns ending in "s"?
    >
    >   This is one of Emacs's most important features.
    >
    > or
    >
    >   This is one of Emacs' most important features.

    Actually, [1] states that the latter form can be used only with
    /regular/ nouns ending in "s", but many people use the plural form
    "Emacsen", so, in current usage, "Emacs" is not a regular noun.

    [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxon_genitive

RMS

    It's worse than that: "Emacs" is a plural form used as singular.
    "Emacs" originally stood for "Editing macros".


It's not clear to me what is the right form to use.


In Emacs source code repository:

$ ag -H --nobreak --nofilename "Emacs' @" | wc -l
=> 0

$ ag -H --nobreak --nofilename "Emacs's @" | wc -l
=> 9

$ ag -H --nobreak --nofilename "Emacs @" | wc -l
=> 68

So, I think we should stick to “Emacs” or “Emacs's”.