From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:54211) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QEm2R-0002Dp-Lu for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:27:04 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QEm2Q-0004fL-BO for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:27:03 -0400 Received: from moutng.kundenserver.de ([212.227.17.10]:59428) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QEm2P-0004WY-Uf for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:27:02 -0400 Message-ID: <4DB7005E.5040006@mail.berlios.de> Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:26:54 +0200 From: Stefan Weil MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <1303806576-10286-1-git-send-email-weil@mail.berlios.de> <201104261904.13291.marten@xtal.rwth-aachen.de> In-Reply-To: <201104261904.13291.marten@xtal.rwth-aachen.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-trivial] [PATCH] Fix typo in code and comments List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: Jan Marten Simons Cc: qemu-devel@nongnu.org, Stefan Hajnoczi Am 26.04.2011 19:04, schrieb Jan Marten Simons: > Am Dienstag 26 April 2011 11:25:58 schrieb Stefan Hajnoczi: >> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Stefan Weil >> wrote: >>> Replace writeable -> writable >> >> Why make this change? writeable and writable are both commonly used >> spellings. > > It seems like "writeable" is the commonly used term in computer > sciences and > "writable" is the normal english adjective formed from "to write" + > "-able" in > general English.[1] > > As we are refering to computer science related "writeable" it should > be left > as is imho. But as I'm no native speaker, you might feel different on > this. > On a side note: Samba offers both spellings as valid for thier > configuration > files. [2] > > [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/writeable > [2] http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=22258.0 > > With regards, > > Dipl. Phys. > Jan M. Simons > > Institute of Crystallography > RWTH Aachen University Commonly used is not necessarily correct. The Oxford dictionary only accepts writable (even when I select american english). Same result with Merriam-Webster. Google suggests writable instead of writeable. I see "writeable" only in computer programs and related contexts, therefore I assume that it is simply a very common spelling error contributed by non-native speakers (like myself). Interesting detail: The spelling checker of my mailing client (Icedove) marks writeable as correct and writable as wrong (which is obviously wrong). Maybe I should send a bug report to Debian. The ratio of writeable:writable in unpatched qemu is 37:47. Even if both writings were correct, I might argue that a uniform spelling is better and choose the form which is more commonly used. Let's improve the spelling for computer programs a little bit!