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BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

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Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#101

Post by andy_ppp »

ChrisRR wrote: post #97
andy_ppp wrote: post #73

Absolutely terrible. You should spell everything in American English when programming as like it or not the standard in every codebase and programming language going to be this. I am British but coding is not language, and trying to be clever like this is incredibly counterproductive especially in a diverse team. If you want British English to be used why shouldn’t the German on your team be able to use their languag…

I'm english, my team is english. We use english spelling throughout. I'm not switching to american spelling to appease americans who aren't reading my code, in the same way as I'm not programming in french either

So you’d advocate that codebases should be written in the locale of the people writing them? What about open source projects, should they be dictated by the first language of the creator in most cases?

You presumably can’t use British English for the standard library calls so now you have a mixture of languages which to me is pointless and more about the ego of the people writing things. I’m just in favour of consistency which unfortunately you cannot achieve unless you’re wrapping americanised standard library calls with true English equivalents.

If you were coming to a codebase that defined American English as the standard I’m certain you wouldn’t change it. Why then when the underlying language makes that choice for you do you feel good about ignoring that?

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#102

Post by GJim »

rikroots wrote: post #88
drwoland wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a programmer working in the UK I've never been asked to rewrite something into British English. I have been instructed to convert some old codebase to American spellings to "avoid confusion". Probably about 6 times in 20 years of professional programming and usually by some product manager based in San José following an acquisition. This is why the library exists I expect.

I've been dodging requests to "fix" British date formats in published articles to meet US reader expectations for a while now ...

Don't get me started on US calendars that have the weeks beginning on Sunday instead of Monday!

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#103

Post by GJim »

andy_ppp wrote: post #101
ChrisRR wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm english, my team is english. We use english spelling throughout. I'm not switching to american spelling to appease americans who aren't reading my code, in the same way as I'm not programming in french either

So you’d advocate that codebases should be written in the locale of the people writing them? What about open source projects, should they be dictated by the first language of the creator in most cases? You presumably can’t use British English for the standard library calls so now you have a mixture of languages which to me is pointless and more about the ego of the people writing things. I’m just in favour of consist…

The belief that only the US'ian way of doing things is correct is curiously prevalent on the other side of the pond to a level that borders on arrogance.

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#104

Post by andy_ppp »

GJim wrote: post #103
andy_ppp wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’d advocate that codebases should be written in the locale of the people writing them? What about open source projects, should they be dictated by the first language of the creator in most cases? You presumably can’t use British English for the standard library calls so now you have a mixture of languages which to me is pointless and more about the ego of the people writing things. I’m just in favour of consist…

The belief that only the US'ian way of doing things is correct is curiously prevalent on the other side of the pond to a level that borders on arrogance.

All I’m saying is keep your codebase consistent with the language the standard library of the coding language you’re using. If there was a programming language with British spelling without the use of awful hacks I’d be fine with that. Unfortunately most languages use American English, deviation from this means mixing languages and debate, therefore I’d consider it bad practice in almost every case.

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#105

Post by ChrisRR »

andy_ppp wrote: post #101
ChrisRR wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm english, my team is english. We use english spelling throughout. I'm not switching to american spelling to appease americans who aren't reading my code, in the same way as I'm not programming in french either

So you’d advocate that codebases should be written in the locale of the people writing them? What about open source projects, should they be dictated by the first language of the creator in most cases? You presumably can’t use British English for the standard library calls so now you have a mixture of languages which to me is pointless and more about the ego of the people writing things. I’m just in favour of consist…

Why would you assume that the open source project in question would be written in US english?

Hell, why assume that the project even be written in english at all? There's more non-english speakers in the world than english speakers

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#106

Post by ChrisRR »

FlamingMoe wrote: post #17
troad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obliged to point out that spelling is always an entirely cultural artefact, and that before colour was spelt color, it was spelt colos. There's nothing more correct about older forms, or newer forms, or any other forms. What matters is what is going to be clearest to your speech community and audience.

However, that is not the perspective of the creator of BritCSS, who refers to current CSS property names as "bastardised" spellings.

It's fair to assume that if a brit writes something online, it's highly likely to be a piss take joke. We just don't waste our time writing /s on the end of every sentence

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#107

Post by tyleo »

varun_ch wrote: post #89
k1t wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I would have, since it refers to the Referer header it seems like it should follow the same spelling. It would be like CSS having a "color" attribute, but then doing something like "default-colour".

Exactly, a Referer on the web is its own thing now. Referrer should be considered a typo if you’re referring to the Referer header.

They are paving a way to release a third spelling in the next update :p

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#108

Post by nrvn »

bmn__ wrote: post #93
nrvn wrote: post #71

The man who got really pissed off by complete disconnection between spelling and pronunciation of words in English was George Bernard Shaw. Throughout his life he was an avid critic of the latin alphabet that was (and still is) used to represent spoken words. He was so frustrated that shortly before his death in 1950 Shaw put the creation of a new alphabet in his will backed by grant in aid. And thus the Shavian alph…

Not enjoyable to me. It elevates the pronunciation that Shaw used into the status of the one true English and marginalises any other spoken variants, dialects all over the globe. This is presumptuous and unfair. How about this (equally unworkable) idea to achieve the goal of fixing the disconnect: instead of reforming the spelling, reform the pronunciation. Keep the writing as it is, but pronounce it to the rules (mo…

While I agree with you I can’t imagine reforming the pronunciation of - say - “Ought to cough and hiccough through the ploughing drought”.

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#109

Post by andy_ppp »

ChrisRR wrote: post #105
andy_ppp wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you’d advocate that codebases should be written in the locale of the people writing them? What about open source projects, should they be dictated by the first language of the creator in most cases? You presumably can’t use British English for the standard library calls so now you have a mixture of languages which to me is pointless and more about the ego of the people writing things. I’m just in favour of consist…

Why would you assume that the open source project in question would be written in US english? Hell, why assume that the project even be written in english at all? There's more non-english speakers in the world than english speakers

Because if you want your project to be well used and contributed to you’re probably writing it in English. I don’t see too many French or Arabic or Chinese or British English open source projects that have taken off, but I’m happy to be proven wrong…

Even large open source projects built in China like Ant Design have documentation and interfaces in American English because even if you don’t like it it’s the correct decision to not needlessly buck against patterns laid down in the programming environment you’re working in.

Re: BritCSS: Fixes CSS to use non-American English

#110

Post by GJim »

ChrisRR wrote: post #106
FlamingMoe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, that is not the perspective of the creator of BritCSS, who refers to current CSS property names as "bastardised" spellings.

It's fair to assume that if a brit writes something online, it's highly likely to be a piss take joke. We just don't waste our time writing /s on the end of every sentence

It must be said that the Americans are rather well known for an inability to spot the satire and sarcasm that pervades our conversation here in Blighty!
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