White space or whitespace (was Re: Comments for DOM 3 Core Last Call)

At 7:30 -0400 8/1/03, John Cowan wrote:
>Susan Lesch scripsit:
>
>>  White space is two words (see all prose and productions in XML 1.0
>>  except one typo in 1998 and the Infoset since WD-xml-infoset-20010202).
>>  I don't know why it wound up being one word in [element content
>>  whitespace]. Do you?
>
>Because I myself prefer "whitespace" to "white space" (which to me suggests
>space that is white, whatever that may be), and you didn't catch that
>particular use.

Yes, my Infoset comment was that white space is two words "in prose."
I have been deferring to XML Core and am sending you all a copy of this
mail (hope that's all right).

At the moment white space in XML 1.0 is two words, and in the XML 1.1
Candidate Recommendation it is one word. W3C uses Merriam-Webster for
its spelling arbiter [1]. The term comes naturally from margins and
other blank areas in book design. White makes less sense on computers
where background colors can be anything.

If you and the XML Core Working Group have time to consider this for a
minute and you agree that coining "whitespace" is a good idea, please
let me know and I would be happy to:

1. retract my DOM 3 Core comment [2]
2. and my XML 1.1 CR comment [3]
3. edit to one word in future W3C specs, and
4. change W3C style [4].

[1] http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=white+space
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-dom/2003JulSep/0068
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-blueberry-comments/2003Feb/0000
[4] http://www.w3.org/2001/06/manual/#Terms

Best wishes,
-- 
Susan Lesch           http://www.w3.org/People/Lesch/
mailto:lesch@w3.org               tel:+1.858.483.4819
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)    http://www.w3.org/

Received on Sunday, 3 August 2003 19:00:30 UTC