Topic: Misspelling of 'color'

[Brightguy]

Of course, we all know it's correctly spelled colour.

I can't believe I haven't noticed this until now, but in the skinconfig.txt, it is spelled "color".  Why is this?  Because the colours are in HTML hex?  The darn misspelled <color> tag...

[Pike84]

Ah, but it's just a difference with English and American way of spelling - just like honor/honour, or labor/labour. There are also other kinds of small differences like in traveler/traveller or so .

[Brightguy]

Oh, I know that's the American spelling.  I was just wondering why it was used.

In fact, I almost see "color" as much as "colour"... (and you're forced to use it in HTML) the American influence over here is very strong, and it's always nice to see words spelled "right", like 'centre'.

[DanaPaul]

I was just wondering why it was used.

Fewer chars, chap  :evil:

[Olego]

Fewer chars, chap  :evil:

:laugh: That's funny.

~Olego~

[Zarggg]

Brightguy, you souldn't even be using the color element anyway. Use CSS

[JimVonMoon]

Hehe, but in CSS color is also spelled "color".

[Torkell]

And the same goes in VB, basic BASIC, VC++ and the Windows API. Ian, what's the official reason behind the American spelling?

[Zarggg]

I'm not Ian, but I'm guessing the consortia, organizations, and companies that created those standards are either founded or based in the U.S.

[Torkell]

Well...
HTML = DARPA = US
Windows = Microsoft = US
VB, VC++ etc. = Microsoft = US
CSS = W3C = US
BASIC = ? = US
C++ = ? = US

On another note, did you know that an unmanned probe mission that was part of a joint effore between NASA and the UK failed, because the NASA guys were using a different measurement system to us (one side were using kilometres (again, note the spelling: re in the UK, er in the US), and the other miles), and no-one had put in a conversion routine anywhere in the code or had thought about it. Whoops!

[Pike84]

Oh, come on.. What does it matter if it's color or colour, when everyone knows what it means? I tend to think rather practically, so I don't give a damn .

[Brightguy]

I really have nothing against "color".  You can't really argue there's a universal correct spelling - it's just the side of the fence you come from.  I noticed it was spelled "colour" in the xmp-skin.txt, but "color" in the skinconfig.txt.

And I did hear about that probe failure... Dumb mistake.  
(At least that's what they claim happened...)  Never forget your units...

[Ralesk]

Well, I've been wondering about the inconsistency of "visualise" and "visualisation" (one of these occurs with a ZED somewhere ), same goes for "equalizer" which since we're a British production *grabs Ian and waves him around*, it should be equaliser

BASIC is I don't know who, because he had a totally insane name, but he was a Hungarian; and by the way, Commodore BASIC was © Microsoft.

[Torkell]

Well, according to the Microsoft Encarta (which is American), "visulisation" is spelt "visualization" and "equaliser" is spelt "equalizer" but is also listed in the dictionary with the "s" version.

Oh, and the words "visulization" and "equalizer" are apparently:

Encarta® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1999, 2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

[DanaPaul]

Well, according to the Microsoft Encarta (which is American)

Well, I wouldn't necessarily put Encarta in a class with average Americans.  Some folks took a hissy fit when Microsoft gave our public school systems free copies of their digital reference material. The content was biased against Microsoft competitors.  Examples, MSN (their Dial Up Network) was given a large and very flattering review at a time when it had perhaps 1 million subscribers, in comparison to other ISP's that had ten's of millions.  And the reference material did a good job of leaving one with an impression that IBM hasn't existed since decades ago when it, along with other fortune 500 companies, including Apple, were suffering from an economic downturn.  Compare this outdated reference with the recent and historically insignificant contribution MSN had made to the world at the time this material was published and one can assume that folks at Microsoft are quite satisfied, eh?  :evil:

[Sebastian_Mares]

BASIC = ? = US

BASIC was originally made by Bill Gates (at that time there was no Microsoft). It is an acronym and stands for "Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code".

[Pike84]

My British-English dictionary has visualize and equalize, without a mention of the s-versions ..

[Zarggg]

BASIC was originally made by Bill Gates (at that time there was no Microsoft). It is an acronym and stands for "Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code".

Hate to burst your bubble, but that's wrong.

http://www.jargonfile.org/jargon/html/entry/BASIC.html

BASIC /bay'-sic/ n.

A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many years was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers.

Note: the name is commonly parsed as Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, but this is a backronym. BASIC was originally named Basic, simply because it was a simple and basic programming language. Because most programming language names were in fact acronyms, BASIC was often capitalized just out of habit or to be silly. No acronym for BASIC originally existed or was intended (as one can verify by reading texts through the early 1970s). Later, around the mid-1970s, people began to make up backronyms for BASIC because they weren't sure. Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code is the one that caught on.

[DanaPaul]

We could have fun with backronyms for BASS

[Sebastian_Mares]

Oops! My fault!
Thanks for the link Alpha!

BTW, is TWAIN such a bacronym, too? As far as I can remember some guys made an acronym out of it and said it would mean "Technic Without An Important Name" -LOL-

[Brightguy]

I searched for some sites that would show some British / American spelling variations; here's two of them:

http://www.xpdnc.com/moreinfo/orlabour.html

http://www.inter-biotec.com/biowc/techgram/list.html

They say that the British spelling uses "-ise" and the American uses "-ize".  Either those sites are wrong, or Kynes has an older dictonary.  I'm confused now...

[Tsorovan]

The -ise suffix is a pretty late invention. Using -ize is still accepted in British English.

[Philidor11]

For me, British spellings are still unforgiven.
I've always been a good speller, and when I was in 6th grade, 11 years old, I knew that my school's spelling bee, part of the national contest, was the beginning of my way to acclaim.  I was already humbly accepting congratulations from myself.
The second round word was one I recognized from my leisure reading in the Faerie Queen, and I spelt it immediately and confidently.  Just as immediately I was out of the bee on my ass.
Showing the director the book didn't help; my chance was gone.  My life was ruined by the provincialism of Edmund Spencer, who mistakenly used a 'c' in his own name.  That should have told me something, but I was young.

[Pike84]

They say that the British spelling uses "-ise" and the American uses "-ize".  Either those sites are wrong, or Kynes has an older dictonary.  I'm confused now...

Must admit, that my dictionary is rather old..

The -ise suffix is a pretty late invention. Using -ize is still accepted in British English.

That explains it, then .

[Olego]

The second round word was one I recognized from my leisure reading in the Faerie Queen, and I spelt it immediately and confidently.  Just as immediately I was out of the bee on my ass.

Wow, that really sucks.  *boots the director out the bar doors*

~Olego~