On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 10:33:47PM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote: > On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 03:09:17PM +0100, Santiago Vila wrote: > | Hmm, do you mean that *you* don't speak about de-archivers? > | [ This is the first time I hear about this in 6 years ]. > | > | Google says: > | > | dearchiver 391 hits > | de-archiver 1660 hits > | unarchiver 1240 hits > | un-archiver 1500 hits > | > | This is biased of course, since I'm sure many of the hits come from > | the unzip package itself. Perhaps we should ask in debian-l10n-english. > > 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. > > I'd suggest something along the lines of "tool for extracting ACE > archives" instead. To my ear, un- means to reverse/revert a process, while de- is to perform a process that returns you to the state before you performed the original process. (Maybe compare 'devolve' and 'unevolve'? I can't think of a better pair off-hand... For a semantic comparison, how about cessation by 'annulment' and 'divorce' of a marriage?) So dearchive would make more sense to me than unarchive. Of course, I much prefer 'extract', where the direct object is the file you're getting out, not the archive itself, which is (relatively) unaffected and therefore sensible as an indirect object. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Paul "TBBle" Hampson, MCSE 6th year CompSci/Asian Studies student, ANU The Boss, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd (ABN: 51 095 284 361) Paul.Hampson@Anu.edu.au "No survivors? Then where do the stories come from I wonder?" -- Capt. Jack Sparrow, "Pirates of the Caribbean" This email is licensed to the recipient for non-commercial use, duplication and distribution. -----------------------------------------------------------
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