Re: Why "color"

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 4:15 PM, Max Harmony <maxh@sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:
> Why does CSS use the American spelling "color"? It was my impression
> that the W3C was an international organisation, so why not use the
> more common spelling "colour"?

First of all, "used in more countries" does not mean "more common".
Even if "color" is only the conventional spelling in America, America
is *big* and influential, especially on the Internet.  I wouldn't take
it for granted at all that "colour" is the more common spelling on the
Internet.  Google gives several times as many hits for "color" and for
"colour".

Second of all, at the time CSS was being drafted, the spelling "color"
was already in common use in the web, due to the "color" attribute of
the <font> tag in HTML.  This tag was created by either Microsoft or
Netscape, IIRC, and both of those are American corporations.
Maintaining the existing familiar spelling would have made sense at
the time.

Received on Wednesday, 18 February 2009 17:43:40 UTC