[WikiEN-l] "refactoring" signatures

Sat Jun 10 16:46:11 UTC 2006

On 6/10/06, Steve Summit <scs at eskimo.com> wrote:
> There seem to be lots of American editors who think that British
> English is *wrong*, and likewise British editors who think that
> American English is *wrong*.  (They rarely come out and say this

I think you're mischaracterising it. There are a number of Americans
in general who have had very little contact with British spelling, and
find it *wrong*. Most British-spellers have had contact with American
spelling, and those that object, find it *bad*. They generally accept
it as a valid choice, they just don't like it.

So, generalising a lot, Am->Br is usually done out of ignorance,
Br->Am out of bloody-mindedness.

> explicitly, but the vigor with which they debate a change from
> one to the other suggests that's how thy really feel, deep down.)
> But, of course, it's not that one or the other is Right or Wrong;
> they're just different.

AmE in an article about cricket is "wrong".

> (The problem's just as bad over on Wiktionary, where there are
> stubbornly, defiantly distinct pages for `color' and `colour'.
> Huge, repetitive, internecine arguments regularly erupt, whenever
> anyone has the temerity to suggest that the two entries be merged
> somehow since they're "obviously" just two spelling variants
> for "the same" word.)

Eep.

Steve