Re: Use of American/British English

[Christian Rose <menthos gnome org>]

mån 2004-02-23 klockan 16.03 skrev Andreas J. Guelzow:
> > We can't assume a user uses any translation. We provide translations,
> > but our desktop must be of the same quality even for those that don't
> > use those.
> 
> Well, in that case of course we should be using the British spelling.
> There are many more countries using that then the `embraced and
> expanded' US spelling.
> 
> If we want to assume that users don't use translations, there is really
> no argument left to persuade programmer X in UK or CA or AU to use the
> US spelling.

Either you're trolling, or you ignored most other mails in this thread
on purpose.

Facts:
1) Translators need consistents terminology and spelling to be able to
use translation memories effectively for reusing translations across
applications.

2) The de facto standard for this in most GNU and GNOME application has
turned out to be the US English spellings, for better or for worse.

3) Any developer contributing to the GNOME Desktop & Developer Platform
should hence try to use US English spellings, and other terminology that
the GNOME Project recommends, for example what's mentioned in the GNOME
Word List.

4) Any developer that doesn't need his or her software be included in
the official GNOME release can write software in whatever language and
with whatever spellings he or she wants (if they want to use the GTP and
don't use US English however, expect some moaning).

5) Anyone seriously unhappy with US English in the original strings can
spend his or her time contributing to en_GB, en_CA or en_AU translations
instead, providing much better use of anyone's time than ranting on a
mailing list.

End of thread?


Christian