[Rd] Spelling (PR#6570)

Douglas Bates bates at stat.wisc.edu
Mon Feb 16 22:00:37 MET 2004


Marc Schwartz <MSchwartz at medanalytics.com> writes:

> On Mon, 2004-02-16 at 11:20, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> 
> SNIP
> 
> > Is this English or American (you know, the language referred to in the USA
> > as `English')?  The rules (and usages) for doubling do differ between the
> > two languages: they can even differ by meaning for words with two or more
> > meanings (and don't ask me for examples as I have forgotten them).
> > 
> > As an English English speaker, my sense and my employer's dictionary both
> > suggest doubling here.
> 
> 
> I don't know that Peter has made a final decision, but I _think_ that
> there was a general consensus on the use of the double "t".
> 
> I believe that it was Thomas, who earlier in this thread, suggested that
> the English (as in 'not American') spelling is generally preferred in R
> documentation, though there is a level of schizophrenia (his word)
> regarding some things (ie. color vs. colour, etc.).

Yes, we don't have many in the Development Core Team who did their
pre-university education in the U.S.A., even among (which I initially
spelled as "amoung") those who currently live and work in the U.S.A.
Those born and schooled in Canada (Robert Gentleman, John Chambers,
Duncan Murdoch and me) outnumber those who were schooled in the U.S.A
(only Luke Tierney, I believe).  Others currently working in the
U.S.A. include Thomas Lumley (Australia) and Duncan Temple Lang
(Ireland).  All of us who were schooled on the British spellings and
now are expected to use American spellings in our everyday writing
have a certain level of schizophrenia.



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