From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 27 08:41:04 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D5578106566B for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:41:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from utisoft@googlemail.com) Received: from mail-bw0-f209.google.com (mail-bw0-f209.google.com [209.85.218.209]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 643E28FC1F for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:41:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bwz1 with SMTP id 1so3069398bwz.13 for ; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:41:03 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:reply-to:in-reply-to :references:from:date:message-id:subject:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=bkn71bje7JFz8a/wy4pw2xvXkZi3eIDNnJmIgsz8ruU=; b=wFyuy2mLFxWvbjsJVSkm/Bi9/IahG4V5UcYmi/Xeyh1myK5qwajuQ6r5Z+0+YNQ295 ECmQ3clnpl0V3C3DfhhQ3Q78lh86+aX6h05guEBljVANXxkKXNz8HBqOrM75+MVvWGcQ 7eir3JT16jfh+XwJyTGrBQ+dS54Vbo4Chy7lo= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=googlemail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:reply-to:in-reply-to:references:from:date:message-id :subject:to:cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=D8XM0i3tJbXfjv96v/LuYjYtAdQm7yswVgbQFIvK2Xnv4HwuRQEtiHzZ2q9jLPtnVx ccnObzhiLxWW8StcHNDwnikzc9gJZsTuU+oMcL53mBzwQFiqDIWiSbojxxN4tUelIS4X ehJWI1yJUTgAVaxmsruCub7T87LaY6G6YnSYw= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.32.213 with SMTP id e21mr8763059bkd.34.1256632863164; Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:41:03 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4AE6095F.4010904@infracaninophile.co.uk> References: <54db43990910261048k8a5d644q2950d4d5e5cb3b01@mail.gmail.com> <4AE6095F.4010904@infracaninophile.co.uk> From: Chris Rees Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:40:43 +0000 Message-ID: To: Matthew Seaman Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: Bob Johnson , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Disk vs Disc (was: WD External Disc Drive) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: utisoft@gmail.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:41:05 -0000 2009/10/26 Matthew Seaman : > Chris Rees wrote: > >> I have always considered hard disk, floppy diskette, and compact disc >> (and digital versatile disc) to be the terminology; but then again the >> official British spelling is disc, whereas AFAICR the US spelling is >> disk. > > The official British spelling is whichever one of disc or disk takes your > fancy at the time. =A0Very few people actually care one way or the other. > On 26 Oct 2009 20:41, Matthew Seaman wrot= e: > Chris Rees wrote: > > > > >> I have always considered hard disk, floppy diskette, and compact disc >> >> (and digital versatile disc) to be the terminology; but then again the >> >> official British spelling is disc, whereas AFAICR the US spelling is >> >> disk. > > > > > The official British spelling is whichever one of disc or disk takes your > > fancy at the time. Very few people actually care one way or the other. > > I was just reading what I saw in Wiktionary in the entry for disc: "disk mainly US, or for magnetic media" So disk refers to hard drive and floppy (magnetic), but vinyl (grooves) and CDs / DVDs (optical) are discs. >From the entry for Disk: In International English, disk is the correct spelling for magnetic disks. If the medium is optical, the variant disc is usually preferred, although computing is a peculiar field for the term. For instance hard disk and other disk drives are always thusly spelled, yet so are terms like compact discs. Thus, if referring to a physical drive or older media (3" or 5.25" diskettes) the k is used, but c is used for newer (optical based) media. Depends how authoritative you consider wiktionary, really. Chris --=20 A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in a mailing list?