Re: Bug#442216: courier: Extra capitalization in debconf templates' short descriptions

[Justin B Rye <jbr@edlug.org.uk>]

MJ Ray wrote:
> Christian Perrier <bubulle@debian.org> wrote:
>> Here I see short description of debconf select templates much more as 
>> prompts than headings or titles (for instance, depending on the
>> interface they're shown before *or after* the long description).
> 
> Most words in headings/titles should be capitalised (in the style of
> the msgids in Bug 442216), but I don't think the prompts are headings.
> debconf gurus may know more than me.

Grepping my d-l-e mailbox, they seem to be punctuated as partial
sentences, with initial capitalisation. 

>> I recently had a small argument with Steve Langasek about samba
>> prompting for "Workgroup/Domain Name:" or "Workgroup/domain
>> name:". Incidentally, he 'won' the argument so we might as well ask for
>> other advices here...:-)
> 
> Slash denotes alternative starts of the phrase, so I'd go with
> "Workgroup/Domain name:" in that case.

I'm afraid I have to disagree.  This disjunctive use of a slash does
very commonly separate words that both have an equal claim to being
intrinsically capitalised.  And it does commonly occur in
"headlinese" contexts.  But I've never seen any evidence that it
overrides the standard rule for sentence-initial capitalisation.
After all, we don't apply the proposed rule with other kinds of
disjunction ("One or The other"), or with other features of
sentential punctuation ("Set up a workgroup?/domain?"). 

That doesn't necessarily mean it's "Workgroup/domain name:", though,
since for all I know the standard Microsoft style guide might
prescribe "Workgroup®/Domain® name:" with intrinsic caps. 
-- 
JBR
Ankh kak! (Ancient Egyptian blessing)