Closed Bug 60927 Opened 24 years ago Closed 21 years ago

should use capitalised 'This' in context and main menus (not 'this')

Categories

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P4)

Product:
SeaMonkey
Component:
UI Design
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED
Milestone:
Future

People

(Reporter: bugzilla, Assigned: bugs)

References

Details

(Keywords: polish)

Attachments

(3 files)

Patch, I might have left some out (grepping for "this" isn't very easy ;-))
2.56 KB, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
Patch, removes the bogus DTD entity (that was added in cookie overlay code alread)
2.21 KB, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
New Patch, doesn't add the bookmark change (not ready yet)
1.77 KB, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review 
summary sez it all. i know, it's niggling, but all other context menu items have
the word 'this' beginning with a lowercase 't' --ie, as seen in 'Bookmark this
Page' and 'Bookmark this Link'. just want to be consistent. :) i've found a
couple of places [so far] where this [pardon the pun ;)] occurs in menus:

* context menu [when viewing frames, eg, http://www.faqs.org/]: 'Show Only This
Frame'
* Search main menu: 'Find in This Page'
should be easy to fix, methinks...

also, i've seen inconsistencies in the mail [3-pane window] menus --eg, File >
Compact This Folder, Search > Find in This Message --not sure if i should i file
a seperate bug in mailnews... Ninoschka, does a bug[s] already exist for the
case in mail? thx!
Keywords: correctness, polish
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Priority: P3 → P4
Target Milestone: --- → mozilla1.0
making this bug block bug 23569.
Blocks: 23569
I don't think there is a specific bug for Mail. I'll make sure there is a
reported bug, thanks.
timeless, wanna take this one?
see verah@netscape.com 2000-12-08 13:07 in bug 23569

until verah withdraws her demand that This be capitalized I won't commit a fix 
for this.  However I personally would like to fix it. So i'll try to have a 
patch shortly for consideration.
Assignee: blakeross → timeless
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
Removing myself from the list of cc's. Have fun, y'all; this is no longer my
concern.
Reassigning to self per timeless.
Assignee: timeless → hwaara
So.. am I free to set all "This" to lowercase as mentioned, or does anyone have
anything against this?
Since we capitalize words in the menus, we might as well abide by some common
style for caps. As Vera noted in bug 23569, "This" is an adjective in the
context being used. Typical style for capitalizing in titles, e.g., would be to
cap "This" (per Chicago Manual of Style and other standard style guides).

I don't see a compelling reason to lowercase "this" in the menu. It may have
been that way in 4.x, but 4.x style isn't the most refined and isn't a standard
for Mozilla or NS 6.

As far as the readibility argument---that's a subjective call, and I don't see
that lowercasing the word makes the menu item any more readable. In fact, I
think that the readability of "Bookmark this Page" is lessened by the lowercase,
especially with all of the caps surrounding "this" on each side and in the
commands above and below. Incidentally, one could replace "This" with "Current"
to see how the word [this] acts as an adjective---and I don't think anyone would
suggest lowercasing "Current." [And I am not suggesting actually replacing
"this" with "Current" at this point.]

Unless there is some non-subjective reason for using lowercase, we should cap
"This" wherever it appears in the menus. The summary of this bug should be
altered, or this bug should be marked invalid and a new bug should be opened for
fixing the inconsistent and atypical use of "this" in the menus.
Adding self to cc list.
Create Shortcut(s) Here
Open with Winzip
Scan for Viruses
Search for Computers
Open With...
Sort by Name

please score these menu items according to chicago style.  And then please 
score the menus of your favorite word processor.  If you have time, score their 
dialogs.  Please attach any interesting strings and scores here.

I don't like styles, and i don't like standards.  However if they agree w/ my 
internal scoring mechanism I will accept them.
Should I go ahead and replcace all "this" -> "This", anyone?
Or vice versa.

`Add this Page' could equally be replaced by `Add the Page', and we wouldn't 
capitalize the `the'. The word `this' isn't important to the meaning of the menu 
item, so I think it should be lower-case.

This is an endless discussion, we need to make a decision. Adding german to comment.
hakan: while i'd prefer the lowercase 'this', i'd say you might as well submit
the patch for the uppercase 'This' [per rudman's discussion above, 'This'
apparently appears to be part of the style for NS 6]. that is, before this bug
gets stale (yet again. ;)  *sigh*
I don't have enough time to promise I'll fix this, thus I'm reassigning to the
default owner of this component. Who knows, maybe I'll get around and fix it
after all - but I can't promise it. Sorry :(
Assignee: hwaara → ben
Correcting summary to more accurately reflect the discussion...
Summary: should use lowercase 'this' in context and main menus → should use capitalised 'This' in context and main menus (not 'this')
stephen, mind doing this?
Assignee: ben → stephend
warning: we are again diverging in this and This stuff.  And yuck, it looks 
like i've r='d validity both ways.
Count me in for non-capitalized 'this's.

I asked Ian from tech pubs about "This vs this" sometime ago. I believe he said 
it should be capitalized (because its an adverb??).  Cc'ing Ian.
I love logomachies! As rudman mentions in the comment from 2000-01-04, "this" is
an adjective in this context--though it can also be an adverb, as in "I love
Jell-o brand gelatin _this_ much!" Since it's not an article or any other
special thing that doesn't get capitalized in titles, it should be capitalized
here. 

And Steve Rudman and I are prepared to defend this grammatical ground in a
WWF-style smackdown, right Steve?
I don't have the technical expertise to argue anything here, but I'm with Simon 
in voting for no capitalization.  Capitalizing it just makes it harder for me 
to get the information I really want (typically I automatically skip over 
lowercase words because they add little meaning to items).
Let's not beat This dead horse. Standard English capitalization style calls for
a cap "T". Arguments based on personal preference will leave us mired in the
muck (the very muck in which Ian and I may have to wrestle you "this-ers").
adding alecf for a possible super review. 
sr=alecf
Stuff like this astounds me. don't we have better things to do with our time?
On the contrary. Thank goodness some people (like writers and UE folks) are
responsible for hashing out issues like these. As "niggling" as these
discussions can get, UI or documentation with inconsistencies or errors can be
really off-putting.
well then someone should proabably go attack editor forgoing against the flow.

Personally i prefer 'this'. And would prefer not using the word _this_ in order 
to avoid This.
I agree, it should be "this". In fact, I recently checked in a fix (bug  78227)
to change to "Find in this Page", "Find in this Frame"!

Time for me to get back to mail/news ;-)
Assignee: stephend → ben
the patch is there, has been super-reviewed, can't we just check in what we
have? I wasn't objecting to the bug itself, just that we were spending so much
time on it.
No, I think it should be "wontfix"
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Target Milestone: mozilla1.0 → Future
I have just tested this bug on mozilla 1.4b
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030412

and I have not found any places where this is not "This" I have checked the
places mentioned in this bug and they all use "This" or have been rephrased in
the meantime.

Can we close this bug as fixed ??

and btw. It this is blocking bug 23569 which is allready fixed
yeah, this bug has been fixed long ago
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Product: Core → Mozilla Application Suite
Component: XP Apps: GUI Features → UI Design
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.

Attachment

General

Creator:
Created:
Updated:
Size: