Re: Variant spellings in GNU Emacs documentation

[David Kastrup]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

>     A minor gripe: from time to time I submit errors (mostly typos)
>     in the GNU Emacs sources and documentation to the list. One
>     thing that I haven't considered an error up to now is references
>     to "MS-DOG", "Windoze" and the like.
> 
> Writing "MS-DOG" is a common practice for us--it is not an error.

It serves no useful purpose, in my opinion, and it makes creating
useful indices and keyword searches more difficult.

In addition, it makes one look like a hypocrite if one stresses the
importance of using the correct name for systems like GNU/Linux.

While I do understand that the "MS-DOG" terminology has found its way
into GNU documentations long before the "GNU/Linux" issue came up, I
would not think it amiss changing it now where it still persists.  I
don't think that there remains any necessity of pointing out the
deficiencies of MS-DOS as an operating system nowadays, and we don't
call, say, FreeDOS (if it is mentioned anywhere) FreeDOG, either.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum