Re: Boolean or boolean

[Sean Fitzpatrick <Sean -dot- Fitzpatrick -at- SMED -dot- COM>]

>Although words derived from people's names are generally capitalized,
>that's not always true, especially when they receive heavy usage.  Example=
s:
>volt, ampere, newton.

According to ANSI/IEEE/ASTM SI 10-97 (formerly ANSI/IEEE Std 268-1992),
the rule for captializing unit names is:

3.5.2 Rules for Writing Names
(1) Spelled out unit names are treated as common nouns in English.  Thus, the
     first letter of a unit name is not capitalized except at the beginning=
 of a  sentence....

Though Boolean is a proper name, it isn't a unit of measure, so volt, ampere and
newton, though also named after historic people, aren't in the same class as
Boolean.

>...the best advice is: pick one and be consistent.

Though I disagree with your argument for lowercasing Boolean, here we agree:
Consistency is the key.
================================================================
As a standard data type in a particular language, "boolean" is a technical
term.  Spelling is a matter of language definition.  When the particular
language is English, eponymus adjectives, like Newtonian or Orwellian, are
initial-capped (see American Heritage Dictionary).

Some confusion may come from the fact that most data types are common nouns,
sometimes used attributively.   Boolean, however, is an adjective, sometimes
used substantively:  an integer data type, a data type of boolean.

This can call for some fine distinctions.  Use the definition closest to the
community within which you are working.  Follow language definition or
programming convention when you are documenting how to write code in a
language.  But once you get away from language elements that are defined as
type boolean, use Boolean.

Sean Fitzpatrick
Technical Writer
Shared Medical Systems, Malvern, PA
milliorwell--level of tyranny sufficient to get one political lie treated as a
fact.



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