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Subject:Re: online or on-line From:"Dennis Hays/The Burden Lake Group, Ltd." <dlhays -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 7 Feb 1996 17:17:17 -0500
As I've been told recently in my government contract, words such as barcode,
online, and offsite are really only oneword---to the government. Since the
government has been using them that way for years, that's the way they want
them in their manuals. Wrong becomes right and right becomes wrong. Without
getting technical, I was told and taught bar code and bar-code number, on
line and on-line application, off site and off-site dose. However, oneword
is just oneword.
Dennis Hays
dlhays -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
-----------------------------------
Write with fire, cut with ice.
At 07:48 PM 02/06/1996 +0000, you wrote:
>Joyce Flaherty wrote:
>> Xxxxxxx On-Line.
>>
>> When I protested, they said, "After we talked to you, we consulted a
>> grammarian. The proper spelling is on-line." They did apologize to
>> me. They did admit error in changing the name of our product. BUT,
>> they implied that there is something very wrong with naming a system
>> Xxxxxxx Online (one word, no hyphen). What do you think?
>At my company, we use one word, no hyphen: online
>If you look at most documentation (Microsoft for starters, but also
>Delrina, Adobe, and others....not to mention the internet magazines),
>you will see that "online" is by far the most prevalent. Probably it
>began as "on-line" but has now evolved to the current version. I'd go
>with the flow. Now, "on-line" looks very strange to me.
>Jane
>............................................................................
> Jane Bergen Technical Writer
> janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com or janeb -at- airmail -dot- net
> "The difference between the right word and the almost right word
> is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug"
> (Mark Twain)
>............................................................................
