On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 12:22 PM, Dennis E. Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote: > < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_(terminology)>. For the Dutch, it > is "Nederland", not "Nederlands" and the "the" is not part of the name, no > more than in "the United States." >
Well, in English it is required. "The Hague" is another one. > It appears that the definite article is not required and, when used, does not > have to be considered part of the nomenclature. I.e., "the Apache OpenOffice > project". > > I agree that "Apache ODF Toolkit" is difficult to refer to without saying > "the". I wonder, as does Rob, whether this is simply a matter of habit. I > don't have the tendency with "Apache Subversion" or any other Apache > <one-word> projects that I can think of. > Looking at other Apache projects with multi-word names, I see examples of both patterns: -- "the Apache HTTP Server" -- "the Apache Portable Runtime Server" but -- "Apache Traffic Server" -- "Apache Directory Studio" One thing appears common, that even if there is no "the" in the product name, the project is referred to as "the foo project". > > > - Dennis > > PS: If there were a version number, the desired to prefix "the" goes away! > Apache ODF Toolkit 0.90, for example. That's how it works for me. "Toolkit" > seems to be the culprit. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Rob Weir [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 08:48 > To: [email protected] > Subject: "Apache ODF Toolkit" versus "The Apache ODF Toolkit" > > Something that has been bothering me, a little inconsistency. > > The legacy project, pre-incubation, was with an organization called > "The ODF Toolkit Union". We referred to the project as "The ODF > Toolkit". > > Now that we're here, we add "Apache" to our name. But are we "The > Apache ODF Toolkit" or just "Apache ODF Toolkit"? > > -- "I download Apache ODF Toolkit" versus "I downloaded the Apache ODF > Toolkit" > > -- "Welcome to Apache ODF Toolkit project" versus "Welcome to the > Apache ODF Toolkit project" > > and so on. > > I'm seeing both forms in use on our website and our communications. > We should probably agree on one or the other. > > To me, the form without the "the" seems unnatural and awkward, but > that might just be from my long exposure to the legacy name. > Similarly, there is nothing intrinsically odd about referring to > "Netherlands" rather then "the Netherlands" other than convention puts > a "the" there. > > Does anyone have a preference, or a good argument for one form over the other. > > -Rob >
