Re: Hyphen, space or neither?

[Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>]

On Tue, 2006-09-26 at 23:24 +1000, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> (note: cross-posting to both the GNOME and KDE lists)
> 
> Which is more correct: 'plugin', 'plug-in' or 'plug in'?

The first one doesn't exist (or only does because programmers are lazy),
the second one is a name, the third one is a verb.

> Now extend this to other words 
> like 'log-in', 'set-up', 'plug-in', 'pop-up', 'start-up', 'mark-up', 'in-line', 'on-line', 
> and 'built-in'.

You need to look at this case by case. If you follow the OED, it's:
- log-in
- plug-in
- pop-up
- start-up (for the company type of "start-up")
- mark-up
- in-line
- online
- built-in

For those that would actually differ from normal spelling (I've never,
ever seen "online" spelt anything but "online"):
- log in for the verb, log-in for the action
- a plug-in
- a popup (neologism)
- a startup (company again, if you're talking about the "start-up" of a
computer, you'd better be talking about "start")
- builtin

"Markup" and "Inline", as they're usually spelt in computer terms,
should never even appear in the user interfaces.

My guess is that you should use your best judgement, and that there's no
such thing as an "Americanism" there, just good, bad and new English.

-- 
Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>