Re: [chat] Dumbest question ever.

[Jamie Wilkinson <jaq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This one time, at band camp, Sean Neakums wrote:
>>>>>> "JW" == Jamie Wilkinson <jaq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>    JW> This one time, at band camp, Sean Neakums wrote:
>    >> Except that you all made the same mistake everyone else makes:
>    >> it's e-mail, not ``email'', which is a type of enamelling.
>
>    JW> That's not a mistake, that's deliberate.
>
>And wilful ignorance is *so* redeeming.

Don't start a sentence with "and", it's poor grammar.

>    JW> See Donald Knuth's notes at the bottom of
>    JW> http://sunburn.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html
>
>I read that note some years ago; Knuth was as wrong about it then as
>he is now.  Past mistakes should be learned from and corrected, not
>mindlessly propragated into the future.

You haven't given any facts to support that the correct spelling of the
abbreviation of "electronic mail" must contain a hyphen -- until I see some
proof that it actually matters, you're no better than a crazed java bigot.

In fact, let's see what dict says:

 % dict email
 4 definitions found
 
 From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:
 
   e-mail
        n : (computer science) a system of world-wide electronic
            communication in which a computer user can compose a
            message at one terminal that is generated at the
            recipient's terminal when he logs in [syn: {electronic
            mail}, {email}]
        v : communicate electronically on the computer; "she e-mailed me
            the good news" [syn: {email}, {netmail}]
 
 From WordNet (r) 1.6 [wn]:
 
   email
        n : (computer science) a system of world-wide electronic
            communication in which a computer user can compose a
            message at one terminal that is generated at the
            recipient's terminal when he logs in [syn: {electronic
            mail}, {e-mail}]
        v : communicate electronically on the computer; "she e-mailed me
            the good news" [syn: {e-mail}, {netmail}]
 
 From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]:
 
   email /ee'mayl/ (also written `e-mail' and `E-mail') 1. n.
   Electronic mail automatically passed through computer networks and/or via
   modems over common-carrier lines.  Contrast {snail-mail}, {paper-net},
   {voice-net}.  See {network address}.  2. vt. To send electronic mail.
   
      Oddly enough, the word `emailed' is actually listed in the OED;
   it means "embossed (with a raised pattern) or perh. arranged in a net or
   open work".  A use from 1480 is given. The word is probably derived from
   French `e'maille'' (enameled) and related to Old French `emmailleu"re'
   (network).  A French correspondent tells us that in modern French,
   `email' is a hard enamel obtained by heating special paints in a furnace;
   an `emailleur' (no final e) is a craftsman who makes email (he generally
   paints some objects (like, say, jewelry) and cooks them in a furnace).
   
      There are numerous spelling variants of this word.  In Internet
   traffic up to 1995, `email' predominates, `e-mail' runs a not-too-distant
   second, and `E-mail' and `Email' are a distant third and fourth.
   
   
 
 From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]:
 
   e-mail
   
      {electronic mail}


So it seems that although you are right about the enamelling, either
hyphenated or non-hyphenated is acceptable.
   
-- 
jaq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx                        http://spacepants.org/jaq.gpg
<Balial> This port may thing it's fortified, butt I seem to be mounting
a pretty good assault