Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:39:52 +0200 From: Marc Fonvieille <blackend@freebsd.org> To: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> Cc: doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FDP and compound words Message-ID: <20120728123952.GA1989@emphyrio.blackend.org> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1207241758220.63105@wonkity.com> References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1207241758220.63105@wonkity.com>
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On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 06:00:01PM -0600, Warren Block wrote: > The FDP word list at > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/writing-style-word-list.html > specifies the formats for several words that are often used as a single > compound word in our documentation. For example: > > file system > disk label > mail server > name server > web server > > Actually, I think the single-word versions of at least the first two are > more correct. Some searching found this: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_noun_and_adjective > > There's an excellent example: "darkroom". A darkroom is a different > thing than a dark room. > > To me, filesystem and disklabel are singular. A filesystem is a thing, > a single object, while a file system is a group of files and > directories. I'm sure there's a name for the > difference between the single- and double-word versions, but don't know > it. Many one-word versions are enshrined in code, like the use of > "nameserver" in resolv.conf. > > I propose changing the FDP recommendations for the two-word versions > above to the single-word versions. > > Statistics from SGML files in /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1: > > 628 "file system", 513 "filesystem" > 28 "disk label", 65 "disklabel" > 50 "mail server", 3 "mailserver" > 56 "name server", 21 "nameserver" > 74 "web server", 13 "webserver" > You forgot to add manual pages, which should change the results for the first two versions. This was discussed in past (long time ago) on this list and we ended (if my memories are Ok) with what is currently on our wordlist. -- Marc
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