Re: XDG critical grammar issue
Chance Rosenthal <[email protected]> Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:37:53 -0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.xdg.devel |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Title case is not an issue of grammar, it's an issue of style. You'll find a section on it in whichever style guide you prefer; you'll also find that the other style guides disagree slightly. Here are the relevant links: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/capitalization/title-case https://style.mla.org/capitalization-of-titles/ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/CapitalizationTitles/faq0093.html You might disagree with the convention of using title case in so many places, but style is a much less clear cut issue than grammar. On 6/21/24 3:48 PM, David Chmelik wrote: > On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 08:34:33 -0400, Pat Suwalski wrote: > >> On 2024-06-21 04:50, David Chmelik wrote: >>> No literate person would write "I'm going to My Garage to get My >>> Toolbox and My Hammer and My Saw and My Nails to work on My Project" >>> because one doesn't capitalise nouns except proper nouns, which aren't >>> used in that example (only exception is academic context, such as >>> Science/Mathematics Department or Class/Course, but not when talking >>> about science/mathematics or classes/courses in non-academic context). >>> However, this ungrammatical style is sadly what most user interfaces >>> do, including XDG-specified! I don't know that's because most copied >>> early versions of Windows and/or similar software on UNIX that had >>> program groups with capitalised names despite being similar to garages >>> & toolboxes and not being academic subjects. It's also wrong in >>> standard/classic menus such as 'File Edit View Help' though as those >>> capital letters get underlined, may improve their readability. >> The title-style capitalization is appropriate. It's uniquely English, >> and many translations address casing locale-specifically. > False; for example Apple and Windows do the same in French, Spanish, etc.: > bad grammar isn't unique to the English-speaking world. > >