Re: [PATCH 0/27] Documentation: Spelling fixes

From: Nikolai Weibull <now@bitwi.se>
Date: Jun 5, 2006, 16:48 UTC
Message-ID: <dbfc82860606050948t5c952f65m364a455e0e83ec8@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4484239C.7020608@op5.se>

On 6/5/06, Andreas Ericsson <ae@op5.se> wrote:

Show 11 quoted lines

> Nikolai Weibull wrote:
> > On 6/4/06, Junio C Hamano <junkio@cox.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Most do not seem to be typoes, depending on where you learned
> >> the language (XYZour vs XYZor; ok, Ok, and OK; ie vs i.e.).
> >
> > Where do you write "ie" instead of "i.e."?
> >
>
> Mailing lists, online conversations, tech docs written in code
> editors...

Do you mean that code editors usually don't let you enter a dot into the buffer, or what?

> Compare with online'ish abbrevs (afaict, iirc, imo, fyi).

That's hardly the same thing. Most people would upcase AFAICT, IIRC, IMO, and FYI.

I wouldn't group "i.e." with such abbreviations in any case.  (Hehe.)

Show 6 quoted lines

> > In Swedish, there has been a trend to remove dots from abbreviated
> > expressions, but it seems people are returning to use dots.
> > Personally, I find that dots make things a lot clearer.
>
> Swedish has lots of abbreviations where one "part" of the abbreviation
> consists of multiple characters, like t.ex.

And "bl.a.".

> When each character of the abbrev defines one complete word dots are
> just prettiness-noise, their presence or absence decided by the gravity
> of the meaning ("R.I.P." vs "ie"). Obviously, correctness never hurts
> but this is, on two accounts, punktknulleri.

Considering that people don't want to get stuck on trying to understand what the word "ie" is supposed to mean in a manual page they're trying to understand what some command does (this happened to me), I really think that fucking with the dots is called for.

Anyway, the general guidelines recommended by "The Chicago Manual of Style" are:

Use periods with abbreviations that appear in lowercase letters; use no periods with abbreviations that appear in full capitals or small capitals, whether two letters or more.

One possible solution is to expand "i.e." to "that is" (or something equally befitting) and "e.g." to "for example", "such as", or similar.

  nikolai