Re: [Qemu-devel] [Qemu-trivial] [PATCH] Fix typo in code and comments

[Stefan Hajnoczi]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 6:26 PM, Stefan Weil <address@hidden> wrote:
> Am 26.04.2011 19:04, schrieb Jan Marten Simons:
>>
>> Am Dienstag 26 April 2011 11:25:58 schrieb Stefan Hajnoczi:
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Stefan Weil <address@hidden>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Replace writeable -> writable
>>>
>>> Why make this change? writeable and writable are both commonly used
>>> spellings.
>>
>> It seems like "writeable" is the commonly used term in computer sciences
>> and
>> "writable" is the normal english adjective formed from "to write" +
>> "-able" in
>> general English.[1]
>>
>> As we are refering to computer science related "writeable" it should be
>> left
>> as is imho. But as I'm no native speaker, you might feel different on
>> this.
>> On a side note: Samba offers both spellings as valid for thier
>> configuration
>> files. [2]
>>
>> [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/writeable
>> [2] http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=22258.0
>>
>> With regards,
>>
>> Dipl. Phys.
>> Jan M. Simons
>>
>> Institute of Crystallography
>> RWTH Aachen University
>
> Commonly used is not necessarily correct.
>
> The Oxford dictionary only accepts writable (even when I select
> american english). Same result with Merriam-Webster.
> Google suggests writable instead of writeable.
>
> I see "writeable" only in computer programs and related contexts,
> therefore I assume that it is simply a very common spelling error
> contributed by non-native speakers (like myself). Interesting
> detail: The spelling checker of my mailing client (Icedove) marks
> writeable as correct and writable as wrong (which is obviously wrong).
> Maybe I should send a bug report to Debian.
>
> The ratio of writeable:writable in unpatched qemu is 37:47.
> Even if both writings were correct, I might argue that a
> uniform spelling is better and choose the form which is more commonly
> used.

The patch mostly touches comments and won't affect external
interfaces, it makes the code consistent.  So let's take it and move
on:
http://repo.or.cz/w/qemu/stefanha.git/shortlog/refs/heads/trivial-patches

Stefan