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British (de facto) & international vs (bad) American English

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dchmelik
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Despite KDE is Germany-based, surprisingly British English KDE is translated from US American English KDE, which has problems, so international (mostly British-like) versions would also, such as searching documentation, systemsettings, etc.
        A problem is American English KDE says 'alternate' instead of 'alternative,' which is incorrect in British English and some/all other dialects. 'Alternative' means 'another choice,' but 'alternate' means '(to) switch between,' like left, right feet when walking, and what alternators do in cars, but aren't 'alternativators:' 'alternate' isn't synonym for 'alternative' despite became slang American English, even widely-used, even in poorly-written dictionaries, because US American English always has been a bad grammar/spelling dialect... that slang apparently originated when a less-educated or half-awake person incorrectly confused the two (but are just as different as homonyms, like 'bow' (either action or weapon,) 'cant' & 'wont' (many definitions) centuries predating abbreviations "can't," "won't," etc... so even in online & informal writing/chat, always inlcude apostrophes when standard!) 'Alternative' is correct in all English dialects so should be used for that case, and anything only done in American English should be replaced.
        Apparently there may not be Canadian (also (North) American,) Australian & New Zealand, South Africa, nor Greater India (pre-1947 including Pakistan & Bangladesh, etc.) English KDE versions though if added in future they'll mostly/all have same problem (as the rest tend to not use American slang/mistakes but often even retain British accent or developed the most similar ones, other than British Isles include Great & Little Britain (Ireland) which Irish influenced American accent.)
        However, the situation is much worse: most capitalization in computer industry is incorrect, using 'style' started by US American college dropouts (Apple, Windows personal computers (PCs)) not British English experts. Only an ignorant person would write 'I went to My Garage and got a Hammer and Saw and Drill and Wood and Nails to work on a Furniture Project,' yet college dropouts popularized this 'style' (so common to see people, discussing online, capitalizing things they shouldn't.) Tools (other than some new inventions before imitated) & categories are generic, not proper nouns: if you read any hardware/appliance/PC (desktop, laptop, pad/tab(let)/hybrid, phone) manual, it says lowercase 'power button,' so why do KDE menus say 'Power / Session,' etc.? Because they follow dropout 'style!' Tools (if generic) & categories in menus and file manager aren't proper nouns (unless a user defines as academic subjects; ) buttons/dials/levers/switches aren't proper nouns, so incorrect to capitalize, other than all-capital (or none) on hardware itself (not manuals) for readability (didn't start mixing case until after PC industry made mistakes.) I mentioned all this in bug reports but no one would really listen/verify, rather than use the bandwagon fallacy ('jumping on the bandwagon' because "it's popular.") Unfortunately what's popular is often bad/incorrect, like science knows some entire countries (USA and those influenced) have bad popular lifestyles (2/3 obese, not enough exercise, highest degree being PhD rather than ScD, etc.) and incorrect capitalization in computer industry started like that: dropout 'style' followed rather than experts.
        A psychology theory is multiple intelligences including logical-mathematical (including computer science, which is/branched a branch of mathematics) & spatial (necessary in modern computer programming) & linguistic. The problem is those with high knowledge/IQ for computer programming aspects may not have that high for linguistic, etc. Fewer might have several higher multiple IQs, but still usually not higher academic knowledge/expertise in most (some knew then forgot.) That's why just as a linguistic expert whom isn't a programmer wouldn't purport to tell programmers about computer languages, programmers who aren't linguistic experts shouldn't do vice versa, so unless experts (using texts from such Oxford, Cambridge, London) oversee a computer style guide, such style guides are typically rife with errors (even KDE, Libre Office, etc.)
        An example was given BBC website toolbar uses capitalization--of course--because such news media content consists of individual articles & books, radio, film/TV works which each is a proper noun, so each category is a group of works, same as a newspaper section is. However, BBC isn't required to capitalize categories, and in general computer industry does incorrectly: software (even hardware) but I generally don't include websites as part of this and are a poor analogy, as focused on markup languages typically for literature/media (publishing individual articles, books, radio, film/TV works,) not pure programming languages, nor generally tools/utilities.
        Most UNIX programs are/were lowercase because quicker to type on command-line, and while it's okay to give a program a title, tools (if generic) & categories aren't proper nouns; /bin/sh variously refers to one of dozens of shells--generic category (except in context of an academic subject/class/book/section) and same with all tools (if generic) & categories.
        Some less mathematics-focused programmers sometimes put spaces by symbols, but isn't done in proper literature (so terms in software shouldn't have spaces by slashes) nor pure mathematics: if you type an equation with spaces into a graphing calculator, you get an error.
        If I don't want such bad grammar in KDE, I shouldn't be subject to it; all-capital writing in online/chat writing has been compared to shouting, and incorrect capitalization is also like that!
        Always get help from experts and never 'jump on bandwagon' to follow mistaken 'style' started by dropouts!
        Maybe this should be a general/miscellanous rather than localization/translation topic, though more British than American people know about (and criticize) problems mentioned.


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