Fwd: XDG critical grammar issue

[David Chmelik]

On Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:46:42 +0200, Philipp Wolfer wrote:
> Am Fr., 21. Juni 2024 um 11:00 Uhr schrieb David Chmelik
> <dchmelik at gmail.com
>>:
> 
>> [...]
>>
>> A bugs.KDE.org person mistakenly told me it's 'title case', but most
>> aren't names/titles rather than generic (non-title) categories--as in
>> my first paragraph's example--which aren't proper nouns.
>>
>>
> 
> Some notes just because I researched the user interface capitalization
> standards for various platforms recently. Title case (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case) for many UI elements is very
> common and actually recommended in the style guides for various
> platforms.
> That's true for window titles, but also notably for button labels and
> menu items. [...]

Then it's incomplete: I'm mostly talking about categories such as in Apple 
launchpad, Windows start menus & similar (GNOME Apps, KDE Kickoff, XFCE 
Applications menus, etc.) and XDG user folders, all which are 
ungrammatical other than only some when used academically.  For some 
window 'titles' (often not meeting proper noun standards for being titles) 
capitalisation may be appropriate (such as web browser title-bars for 
names of web-pages/-sites as literary works, but not much else) but not 
others, and generally not for buttons, which I don't know XDG specifies, 
rather than generic (non-proper noun) menu categories & user folders.

> The *Apple human interface guidelines* leaves it to each app whether
> they want to use title or sentence case, but it should be done
> consistently. See:
> 
> https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/
writing#Best-practices
> <https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/writing>
> 
> *Decide whether you want to use title case or sentence case for alerts,
> page titles, headlines, button labels, and links. Throughout the HIG,
> you’ll find guidelines for specific components, but how you format your
> text is a reflection of your app’s voice. Title case is more formal,
> while sentence case is more casual. Choose a style that fits your app.*

Formality is about correctness: one capitalises the software 'Libre 
Office', specific/named office 'The Oval Office' (in White House in United 
States of America (USA)), but not 'offices' & (when notspecific office) 
'office' (such as software category).  Being casual could include improper 
capitalisation when might not confuse people (but still could) such as 
'libre office' which could in lax/"'net-speak" grammar mean the software, 
or for example, an office at the Free Software Foundation such as "Richard 
Stallman's office is a libre office (uses only Free/Libre Software)".  
I've seen people from some part of India capitalise every single word in a 
sentence, looking even worse than example in my original post (OP) of 
incorrectly capitalising non-proper nouns same as done in Apple, Windows, 
XDG, but when these organisations, and people in that part of India, do 
this, it doesn't make it look more formal rather than casual/illiterate, 
and using correct lowercase also in fact looks formal.

My example seems to have gone over everyone's heads.  I'm qualified to 
tutor university-level English so know what I'm talking about.  Just 
because bad grammar becomes popular--even standardised--in less literate 
society/culture doesn't make it correct.  If you read a grammar, i.e., 
complete grammar textbook, from Oxford or Cambridge universities, etc., 
they make clear the standards aren't like in the new 'computerese' style 
(developed in USA's 'American English', a dialect rife with bad grammar).