Re: Bug#220930: ITP: unace -- De-archiver for .ace files
On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 01:28:31PM -0500, Joe Drew wrote:
> On Sun, 2003-11-16 at 09:33, Cameron Patrick wrote:
> > I'm a native English speaker and I don't believe I've ever heard the
> > term de-archiver; its meaning is clear, but it sounds 'wrong'. The
> > hyphen, especially, looks out of place. "Unarchiver" is what I'd use
> > if I had to coin a word for it, but I don't believe that's a common
> > English word either.
>
> There are almost always better words than un$NOUN (or un$VERB). (Your
> description below is a good example of how to avoid un*.)
>
> I was once asked "Do you un-close a door? Then why should you uninstall
> a program?" Unarchive is just as bad a word as uninstall.
We have an opposite of close: open. We're seeking an opposite for
archive. Unarchive might be bad, but as Cameron and I said, dearchive is
clumsy (even more so when hyphenated).
Windows talks about "Remove" rather than uninstall. dselect talks
about deleting and removing.
> > I'd suggest something along the lines of "tool for extracting ACE
> > archives" instead.
>
> This is a good short description.
I agree. Better than making up new words, certainly!
Hamish
--
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>
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