Re: A language by any other name
Sean Middleditch <elanthis@users.sourceforge.net> writes:
> > Why such emphasis? The idea is to spell words like "colour" instead of
> > "color", not to write the ls man page in iambic pentameter.
No, the idea is to spell it "color," not "colour."
The mass of writing in the computer world is American English, for
better or for worse, and having different spellings in a single
system is as distracting and unprofessional as misspelling the word
entirely. Now some don't think that misspelled words are a big deal,
but these are not enlightened people.
Just so there is no confusion, I am not suggesting that everyone in
the world use American English for everything. American English
should be used for the documentation in a Debian system and
therefore the alias for English should be en_US. If Romeo and Juliet
were turned a package, the text would of course be in en_GB, but
/usr/share/doc/r&j/README.Debian and the man page ;-) would be in
en_US.
If a multi-billion dollar company whose employees have all learned
British English decide that their documentation should be in
American English, that's saying something.
--
Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> http://www.newt.com/wohler/ GnuPG ID:610BD9AD
Maintainer of comp.mail.mh FAQ and mh-e. Vote Libertarian!
If you're passed on the right, you're in the wrong lane.
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