4 ms·
Ask HN: Do you use 'open source' or 'open-source'?
It seems to be split 50/50 across the board. What do you use? Open source or open-source?
- MalcolmDiggs 12y agoI usually use "open source" but I try to refer to the actual license to avoid ambiguity whenever possible. e.g: rather than say "This repo is open source" I'd rather say "This repo is MIT licensed".
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoI use Open Source and Free Software (capitalized) as well as free as in beer (lowercase). No one else seems to be picking up on my typographical hacktivism though.
- steanne 12y agoopen source is a compound noun. open-source is a compound adjective.
- Nadya 12y agoI use "open source" personally, but it depends if there is ambiguity. "Open-source" is a compound modifier which are used to avoid ambiguity. Example: "Man-eating shark" could be read "man eating shark" without the hyphen, which can change the meaning to a man eating a shark instead of a shark eating a man. Wikipedia switches constantly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source "open-source" occurs 138 times "open source" occurs 119 times I can't think of a scenario where "open source" leads to ambiguity. I would argue "open-source" removes any chance of ambiguity and is the better choice, but for aesthetic purposes I prefer "open source".