Bruce Ashley: > Programme was originally a French affectation but has been mainstream > English since the early 20th Century by the look of it (it was certainly > the way I was taught the language). As such, programme was correct in > all instances but after the Gates-ian revolution, 'program' come into > the language to describe a computer program. Similar to how disc became > disk I guess. :) > > As such I currently use programme as before EXCEPT when talking about > computer programs. The chronology's a bit off -- as Stuart Burnfield has pointed out, the use of "program" for computer code predates Bill Gates himself, never mind his revolution. But Bruce's point is still valid. Like Bruce, I used to use the -m form as a technical term, and the -mme form for the things I bought at the theatre, the opera, etc. But it was always a losing battle; now I am content to use the unaffected form for all purposes. "Disc/k" is a different proposition. The spellngs reflect Latin and Greek derivations, and the Romans got the word from the Greeks, so I can't see why the -c form is of any use -- though, of course, readers of anything older than yesterday's newspaper do often need to be aware of older word forms. Michael Lewis -------------------------------------- Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia www.brandle.com.au -------------------------------------- ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************