Of course we still see people getting this wrong on a regular basis, but googling for "SUSE capitalization" doesn't reveal anything helpful. IMHO we need a wiki page covering the One Absolute Truth, and also a bit of the history behind it. I found this thread from 2005:
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2005-08/msg00377.html
but it didn't provide the full story.
Additionally,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuSE
are (somewhat depressingly) two entirely different articles, neither of which gives any real detail over the renaming from SuSE to SUSE. Shouldn't there be a page
https://en.opensuse.org/Capitalization
or something?
http://en.opensuse.org/Help:Style#openSUSE_spelling
Mon Dec 16 2013 11:12:14, Adam Spiers wrote:
Of course we still see people getting this wrong on a regular basis, but googling for "SUSE capitalization" doesn't reveal anything helpful. IMHO we need a wiki page covering the One Absolute Truth, and also a bit of the history behind it. I found this thread from 2005:
Seriously? Is _this_ what prevents the distribution from being the greatest and most popular? After my experience with 13.1, I hardly think so...
Michal Kubecek
(Yes, I'm one of the heretics.)
On Mon, 16 Dec 2013 14:31:26 +0100 Michal Kubecek mkubecek@suse.cz wrote:
Seriously? Is _this_ what prevents the distribution from being the greatest and most popular? After my experience with 13.1, I hardly think so...
You are right, but Adam's question is right on the point if you look at a bigger picture. We are missing many easy to guess links within opensuse.org infrastructure, something like:
http://<organizational_unit>.opensuse.org/<applicable_high_level_topic> where <organizational unit> (OU) is * build * wikies => <language_code> * software * download * doc * www *lists etc, from servers in opensuse.org domain
<applicable_high_level_topic> is * Capitalization (Spelling) * Installation * Download * Community etc, from applicable vocabulary for a specific OU.
IMHO, it is time to consult Wikipedia about this kind of accessibility problems. They hit almost all things that we can encounter long before us, so there is no need to reinvent the wheel.
BTW, looking for an answer to Adam's question can be something that non-developers and non-factory guys can take on, so it is good one in this respect too.
Michal Kubecek (mkubecek@suse.cz) wrote:
Mon Dec 16 2013 11:12:14, Adam Spiers wrote:
Of course we still see people getting this wrong on a regular basis, but googling for "SUSE capitalization" doesn't reveal anything helpful. IMHO we need a wiki page covering the One Absolute Truth, and also a bit of the history behind it. I found this thread from 2005:
Seriously?
Yes.
Is _this_ what prevents the distribution from being the greatest and most popular?
No. I never said it was.
After my experience with 13.1, I hardly think so...
Then we agree on that point. But that's not relevant to this discussion.
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On Monday, 2013-12-16 at 11:12 -0000, Adam Spiers wrote:
Of course we still see people getting this wrong on a regular basis, but googling for "SUSE capitalization" doesn't reveal anything helpful. IMHO we need a wiki page covering the One Absolute Truth, and also a bit of the history behind it. I found this thread from 2005:
openSUSE capitalization poses other problems. Spellcheckers fail on it. For instance, it says that "opensuse" is incorrect, but it does not suggest that "openSUSE" is the correct one. It also insist on saying that at the start of a sentence the correct spelling is "OpenSUSE".
Anybody is addressing this? I know there is a bugzilla on the second issue.
- -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. (from 12.3 x86_64 "Dartmouth" at Telcontar)
On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 21:19:51 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:
It also insist on saying that at the start of a sentence the correct spelling is "OpenSUSE".
This isn't something that needs a technical solution, IMHO, but a style guide solution. The solution would be that sentences shouldn't start with "openSUSE," but should avoid being structured that way. If they must, then the phrase to use is:
"The openSUSE distribution"
or some variation that avoids putting "openSUSE" at the start of the sentence.
But we don't have a formal writing style guide (or indeed an informal one).
We also have the problem of it being spelled "OpenSUSE" on wikis in general, because page titles are often automatically capitalized.
I guess the place to start this discussion isn't with "let's fix the problem of openSUSE capitalization," but rather "do we have a multi- lingual writing style guide that can address these types of issues?"
As a professional writer, I find that when there's a style guide that spells out things like this, that leads to fewer questions. A good one to look at as a reference, honestly, is the Microsoft Manual of Style, 4th Edition.
Novell and SUSE have a style guide for open source documentation authoring that might be a better place to start:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/osauthoring/
This isn't as comprehensive as some (like the Microsoft guide, which gets into specific word usage, interface elements, and so on), but it's a starting point.
A more comprehensive guide used by Novell, SUSE, and NetIQ is available online at:
http://www.novell.com/documentation/beta/docguides/styleguide/data/ bktitle.html
While it's labeled as beta, it's not, it's actively used by the internal writing teams.
Jim
Hi,
On Tue, 17 Dec 2013 21:19:51 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:
It also insist on saying that at the start of a sentence the correct spelling is "OpenSUSE".
[...] If they must, then the phrase to use is:
"The openSUSE distribution"
or some variation that avoids putting "openSUSE" at the start of the sentence.
+1
But we don't have a formal writing style guide (or indeed an informal one).
For documentation, we have one: http://svn.opensuse.org/svn/opensuse-doc/trunk/documents/styleguide/en
[...]
On Wed, 18 Dec 2013 14:27:15 +0100, Thomas Schraitle wrote:
But we don't have a formal writing style guide (or indeed an informal one).
For documentation, we have one: http://svn.opensuse.org/svn/opensuse-doc/trunk/documents/styleguide/en
That's good to know - I wasn't aware this was available. :)
Jim
On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Adam Spiers aspiers@suse.com wrote:
[…] Shouldn't there be a page
https://en.opensuse.org/Capitalization
or something?
JFYI: In the spirit of continuous, small improvements, I've created that page now, which only redirects to the existing http://en.opensuse.org/Help:Style#openSUSE_spelling (;
686f6c6d (686f6c6d@googlemail.com) wrote:
On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Adam Spiers aspiers@suse.com wrote:
[…] Shouldn't there be a page
https://en.opensuse.org/Capitalization
or something?
JFYI: In the spirit of continuous, small improvements, I've created that page now, which only redirects to the existing http://en.opensuse.org/Help:Style#openSUSE_spelling (;
Excellent, thanks! I only just saw this ...
I've added a small bit of history to that section, and cited some references.
Adam Spiers (aspiers@suse.com) wrote:
686f6c6d (686f6c6d@googlemail.com) wrote:
On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 12:12 PM, Adam Spiers aspiers@suse.com wrote:
[…] Shouldn't there be a page
https://en.opensuse.org/Capitalization
or something?
JFYI: In the spirit of continuous, small improvements, I've created that page now, which only redirects to the existing http://en.opensuse.org/Help:Style#openSUSE_spelling (;
Excellent, thanks! I only just saw this ...
I've added a small bit of history to that section, and cited some references.
Argh. I spent quite a bit of time on this, but somehow my changes have vanished without a trace :-( Was there some kind of "restore from backups" data loss disaster since December?
-
686f6c6d -
Adam Spiers -
Carlos E. R. -
Jim Henderson -
Michal Kubecek -
Rajko -
Thomas Schraitle