[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [PATCH] spelling fixes (PR#1526)

[Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

scripsit Greg Wooledge:
> Reinier Post (rp@xxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 03, 2002 at 07:39:16AM -0700, Thanasis Kinias wrote:
> > > If you're patching, I would recommend following the usage of the Chicago
> > > Manual of Style, which is 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, etc.
> > Interesting.  I don't think I've ever seen this in print.
> 
> I've never seen it before in my life, and I'm a native English speaker.

That strikes me as a bit hyperbolic, but your point is taken.

> Thanasis Kinias (tkinias@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> > Formal writing is a very, very small proportion of the content on the
> > Web.
> 
> Freeciv is not meant to conform to the rules of formal writing.  It's a
> game, and it's meant to be approachable by the widest possible audience
> (within reason).

The idea of following standards is, in fact, to help in reaching the
widest possible audience.  That is, for example,  one of the reasons one
is not encouraged to write documentation in `l337 hax0r' style -- if
English isn't one's native tongue, such writing is very difficult to
read.  Formal writing (by which I mean "proper", not complicated) is
generally much easier to read than informal, for someone whose knowledge
of English is acquired second-hand.  If you are American, compare the
difficulty of reading Trainspotting with that of reading the London
Times to get what I mean.

> If you use "1st" and "2d", people are going to think the latter is a typo.
> "2d" is not the common English usage in any country I'm aware of.  It
> will cause confusion.

I encourage you, if you are near a U.S. university, to check out a copy
of Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations, which is sort of the `light' version of the Chicago
Manual of Style.

Nonetheless, given the strong negative response from a couple of list
members, I will readily concede that in this case my suggestion will not
accomplish the objective of clear communication.

-- 
Thanasis Kinias
Web Developer, Information Technology
Graduate Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.

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Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul