Re: GNOME Documentation Style Guide

[Dave Mason <gnome dmason net>]

On 12 Jul 2001 17:38:16 +0100, Eugene O'Connor wrote:

> Neither deselect nor unselect are listed in the American Heritage
> Dictionary. These terms are not established long enough to be included
> in a volume such as the AHD. However, the industry that we work in often
> coins new terms, and we need to be open to using such terms, for our
> documentation to meet the expectations of our users.
> 
> Deselect is one such new term. The de- prefix is more often used with
> verbs, and the un- prefix is more often used with adjectives, adverbs,
> and nouns. The de- prefix can mean "to do the opposite of" and "to
> remove from". So deselect means the opposite of select and to remove the
> selection from an item. I do not get the same sense of "to remove from"
> from the un- prefix.


Lets make sure not to use 'depress' (one should depress the print
button). That has to be one of the worst cases of using the prefix 'de'.
When I see it I just want to know what I did to the poor button to make
it so sad.

Dave