From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 required=3.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,FREEMAIL_FORGED_FROMDOMAIN,FREEMAIL_FROM, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B7A92C433E0 for ; Mon, 8 Jun 2020 00:28:18 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 870ED206D5 for ; Mon, 8 Jun 2020 00:28:18 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=gmail.com header.i=@gmail.com header.b="mA1JJTEu" Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1727999AbgFHA2R (ORCPT ); Sun, 7 Jun 2020 20:28:17 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:53722 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1727965AbgFHA2Q (ORCPT ); Sun, 7 Jun 2020 20:28:16 -0400 Received: from mail-ot1-x334.google.com (mail-ot1-x334.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4864:20::334]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 65F69C08C5C3 for ; Sun, 7 Jun 2020 17:28:15 -0700 (PDT) Received: by mail-ot1-x334.google.com with SMTP id n6so2927011otl.0 for ; Sun, 07 Jun 2020 17:28:15 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=/qm7vYF5PIJMOKj/bOKl9Ybad1GlTRbXwNXZAT0LjwM=; b=mA1JJTEuA0KHixkkxTBji5CymlyZkSirlK9iG9hl0HEoMWaX4XDIdMft0M+f0dxGVb taqzpD7AtGDukiSfppAdUeaNQ0PIOb4oJrPmyy4qBA9xsCuxIPYQOZTlypIueb4NvwX0 zxAcz/EOEfGnZIuiuHa3QcXPeyeohmW1+UkPvtzJ1N/fNCZdPww8aXiWP/Z709akz0A9 HSuJ00+XK0icAz+fytyjRPlsLYGFt++1MwIs+FPgJQGLvKCLXsSDf+LuSsGBHoTBuhoW 5DezRa+i7Z0YKrkKNNAH8FOYEVExSFzSbYNIay+VyOyLD+P9rQ3tLRCaGSz/EpIToJgH z0fQ== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=/qm7vYF5PIJMOKj/bOKl9Ybad1GlTRbXwNXZAT0LjwM=; b=D347G6YF8zGmikJbgcDFFsKbz2nAYZs5McZrpoq0GLe4aCcpT0PCtCNipyO3fP9Emb 9vaiSRxD/16Kr641sLL2mKX/at1xWGUvNEEidhhHr8S9v4t6mixax5qe115+ceVJ/MYI Hcgvxrz9cHFNlvuvbRCVJuOmOQ6mNec0j717dgPRPD6hthofpCYaJZmFkSk88gCuZ+ru cD1zQYR5pPbFFoq9O9JrZ24TOKzzJdL9fTrvvLqJwT1O4ciOJ9EiOnwhH/u/MZ/mCIxy iAqXrfynLiLWiUPEOq5rKOXt7EFgGMm9QPP0gtwFulsORCbhg7Xo6WiDU2t2MBP2RyCn YLiw== X-Gm-Message-State: AOAM533GXgOpFrwugRPRIE0YG/L0UlFOVFdBLG2eC+hBoFn5R5SCbcfv 6FzBhCZ/AEqi2KoI0QtWSHyW3FPTFCjebkyBCOrFVHiq X-Google-Smtp-Source: ABdhPJx8CNV3R2PYtjSkMExQZxSE+q0xF1bpEbXrv9h1YRDDng/Mmw7A/xwU2+MeNW7fzba7r32CbDCf3AfI2CeQQeE= X-Received: by 2002:a9d:5612:: with SMTP id e18mr14835994oti.24.1591576094485; Sun, 07 Jun 2020 17:28:14 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20200605232413.GG6569@camp.crustytoothpaste.net> In-Reply-To: <20200605232413.GG6569@camp.crustytoothpaste.net> From: Varun Varada Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2020 19:28:03 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Re: Standardizing on Oxford English To: "brian m. carlson" , Varun Varada , konstantin@linuxfoundation.org Cc: git@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org On Fri, 5 Jun 2020 at 18:24, brian m. carlson wrote: > > I should point out that many of your arguments about U.S. English are > true of English in general. As a native U.S. English speaker who also > knows Spanish and French, I can confidently say that even French, which > many find difficult, has a mostly regular correspondence between letters > and sounds, and, overall, a reasonably consistent set of rules for verb > conjugations, albeit with many irregular verbs. English, in any form, > has none of that. It is, as languages go, highly irregular. Agreed, as I'm a native US English who knows French as well. But I guess my point is that out of all of the varieties, Oxford English is the most prevalent, international, and etymologically correct, which is why I suggested it. > > I didn't write the text in question, but I suspect the reason is > practicality: most open source projects use U.S. English, and most > contributors to Git are able to write the U.S. variety. It's hard for > me personally to write Oxford English because I have never written or > spoken it, and when I need to consult a reference, the one I have is > from the University of Chicago, not Oxford. I suspect many Canadians > and second-language speakers from at least parts of the Americas are > more likely to be familiar with the U.S. variety than Oxford or British > English, although I don't know for certain. The reference for Oxford is the first spelling on lexico.com, which is a very widely-used resource. Canadian English is essentially identical to Oxford except for the -yze set of words, for which Oxford maintains the etymologically correct -yse endings. And second-language speakers learn Oxford by and large, though many from Brazil apparently end up just moving to the US to learn English, where they necessarily learn US English. However, I never found the guidance of doing what other people are doing a convincing one, especially when the alternatives are more logical/convincing/"better". Though I do recognize Konstantin's point that the project is decades old. > This isn't a defense of U.S. English (after all, I wrote the first > paragraph), but just an acknowledgement of the way things are. This > project is all about practicality rather than purity; to quote from > CodingGuidelines: > > Again, we live in the real world, and it is sometimes a > judgement call, the decision based more on real world > constraints people face than what the paper standard says. > -- While I somewhat sympathize with the sentiment, from the text, it seemed like things were in a mixed state, so I wanted to suggest picking the standard that makes the most international sense. As the usual guidance goes: when faced with two choices of relatively equal difficulty, choose the one that makes the most sense long-term. Varun