Re: Fix UK spelling in comments and ChangeLog entries?

[David Kastrup]

Alan Mackenzie <address@hidden> writes:

> Morning, David and everybody else!
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 07:25:22AM +0200, David Kastrup wrote:
>
>> 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?

You mean "collar".  You should exhibit a better grasp of spelling if you
want to make a convincing point.

Anyway, the point is that Emacs _has_ chosen a language for its
documentation.  It would be out of place if I commented my contributions
in German, so why should others document in British?  We also have
coding conventions we retain.

> 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.

The problem is that ChangeLog entries can become NEWS eventually, and
comments become DOC strings.  And all are things people tend to grep
for.  And yes, this thread has been about "anybody else" wanting to
correct things, not about rejecting contributions or tying down
resources people want to spend elsewhere.

> 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.

We have Elisp coding conventions in Emacs, and C coding conventions, and
yes, adhering to them is strongly desired.  Nobody complained about that
as far as I remember.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum