Subject: Re: [malcolm.parsons@virgin.net: bsdgames: number claims English output, but outputs in American]
To: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@NetBSD.org>
From: Alistair Crooks <agc@pkgsrc.org>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 11/17/2003 12:50:29
On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 04:49:24PM -0800, Bill Studenmund wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 16, 2003 at 11:46:10PM +0100, Alistair Crooks wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 01:57:28PM -0800, Bill Studenmund wrote:
> > > > What does NetBSD think is the correct fix for this bug?
> > > 
> > > I think the correct thing is to leave things alone, for two reasons.
> > > 
> > > 1) NetBSD has chosen to use American English as its language, so the 
> > > current use of, "english" by this program is fine.
> > 
> > I don't remember any such choice being made - can you give me some more
> > details of this, please, because I, for one, am dead against it.
> 
> All the discussions I'm familiar with regarding correct spelling when it 
> differs between British and American English have expressed this choice. 

There's a bit of an extrapolation between Bill Studenmund being in a
few private discussions, and alienating a number of people by forcing
a particular spelling regime upon everyone.  I think that posting mail
with a NetBSD.org "From" address, saying that "NetBSD has chosen..."
is taking things a bit far. 

> Also, the dictionary that ships with the base system makes use of American 
> English spelling.

We ship the base system with the Pig Latin locale, but we haven't
(yet) sent out any mail forcing everyone to use that locale.

To summarise - there is or was no dictat from The NetBSD Foundation
that the project must use American spelling in all its documentation,
nor do I believe that there should be one.  My own preference is to be
inclusive on this - I would much prefer to see any documentation
whatsoever, even if it has a different spelling to the one with which
I'm familiar.

Regards,
Alistair