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Ask HN: Should a British developer spell functions with American English?

2 points by g105b 6y ago

Should a British software developer write functions with British English spelling or American English spelling? getColour() localise() doTheMaths()

noemit 6y ago
who's reading the code?
phillipseamore 6y ago
Though I prefer British spelling just about all programming languages and APIs use American English so I use that when programming. I do not want to search code twice for analyze/analyse, color/colour etc.
davismwfl 6y ago
Depends on the team and company. If it is a US company or predominately US team then I'd say American English. If instead it is a British based company, or predominately a British team then I'd say British standards. As an American I would have no issues with using British spellings of words if that was the decided path. In the end, I think consistency in the code base is most important and a note on the repository which says which it follows. It only becomes a problem if people use both interchangeably or inconsistently, that makes it a pain in the ass.
ksaj 6y ago
I used to do some gigs in the Middle East. Even within single documents you'd find the same words spelled in both the British English and American English spelling. As a Canadian, only found the 's' instead of 'z' in words that end with -ize unfamiliar. The other flip-flopping didn't bother me because it was essentially what I always see here at home with Canadian/American spelling norms. Usually there would be a standard dictating how things should look and feel, and that would indicate spelling norms. But when there isn't a standard, I'd just consider who I think would be the next people who have to look at my work, and go from there. I always felt though, that the lack of standardizing (or standardising, as the case may be) the language of choice is the type of thing that leads to hard-to-find bugs. There should never be the option to have both a getColour() and getColor() defined.

2 points by g105b 6y ago

Should a British software developer write functions with British English spelling or American English spelling? getColour() localise() doTheMaths()

noemit 6y ago

who's reading the code?

phillipseamore 6y ago

Though I prefer British spelling just about all programming languages and APIs use American English so I use that when programming. I do not want to search code twice for analyze/analyse, color/colour etc.

davismwfl 6y ago

Depends on the team and company. If it is a US company or predominately US team then I'd say American English. If instead it is a British based company, or predominately a British team then I'd say British standards. As an American I would have no issues with using British spellings of words if that was the decided path. In the end, I think consistency in the code base is most important and a note on the repository which says which it follows. It only becomes a problem if people use both interchangeably or inconsistently, that makes it a pain in the ass.

ksaj 6y ago

I used to do some gigs in the Middle East. Even within single documents you'd find the same words spelled in both the British English and American English spelling. As a Canadian, only found the 's' instead of 'z' in words that end with -ize unfamiliar. The other flip-flopping didn't bother me because it was essentially what I always see here at home with Canadian/American spelling norms. Usually there would be a standard dictating how things should look and feel, and that would indicate spelling norms. But when there isn't a standard, I'd just consider who I think would be the next people who have to look at my work, and go from there. I always felt though, that the lack of standardizing (or standardising, as the case may be) the language of choice is the type of thing that leads to hard-to-find bugs. There should never be the option to have both a getColour() and getColor() defined.