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(when the marketing types advertised a product called "xxx Online" as
"xxx 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?
The IBM Dictionary of Computing calls it "online" (one word). America Online
spells it the same way. If there's something very wrong with it, at least
it's a pretty standard, accepted wrong, which makes it kinda right.
So: a swift boot to the head for your marketing types, and a big cup of
coffee for the grammarian, who will hopefully wake up and smell it.
Online rules okay by me.
Michael Priestley
mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
Disclaimer: speaking on my own behalf, not IBM's.
