Re: Flamewars & Why pedantic spelling is good.
On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 03:52:12PM -0800, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
> > wrong. like "howto", "zonefile" has been in common usage in its field
> > for several years. in fact, it has been in common usage longer than
> > "howto" has.
>
> Several people have already pointed out that, in fact, DNS documents
> always say "zone file" and not "zonefile".
yawn. you're wrong. again.
> > to admit that, though, would mean admitting that perhaps i was right in
> > complaining about trivial and erroneous bug reports like "zonefile" and
> > [...]
> Um, every bug should be taken seriously.
no, some bug reports are not worth taking seriously.
> > small minded people think that dictionaries prescribe language.
> > anyone who has studied even basic linguistics knows that they do
> > not, linguistics is a *DESCRIPTIVE* discipline...it does not presume
> > to prescribe what a language *should* be, it describes what a
> > language *is*. living languages evolve over time - new words are
> > invented, old ones fall out of usage or gain new meanings or lose
> > old meanings.
>
> Where did that come from?
it was pointing out the bleeding obvious for the benefit of some of the
slower people around here.
> In this case, there is a good reason to aim for consistency across
> Debian, and instead of participating in that effort, you're doing your
> level best to scuttle it.
no, i'm not.
i'm just pissed off by trivial bug reports about bugs that aren't bugs.
only a few years ago, this kind of thing was frowned on in debian and
referred to as Bug System Terrorism. these days it's acceptable.
some of them were legitimate spelling errors, and by themselves i would
have just left them on the todo list. moronic complaints about
"zonefile" and "usenet" just pissed me off, however, and presaged a
flood of even more moronic bug reports.
has there been a change to policy that i don't know about? are we all
now subject to MZ's idiosyncratic spelling?
craig
--
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
Fabricati Diem, PVNC.
-- motto of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
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