There's a grammatical question and a policy question. The question is whether the proper name is "The Apache Software Foundation" or "Apache Software Foundation." No fair taking cases where the "The" is the first (capitalized) word of a sentence or of a title/heading.
Also, notice on the Apache home page, the project names never have "The" as if that is part of the proper name of the project. The evidence you need is the use on this page: <https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/open_letter_to_the_open>: "Earlier this year the OpenOffice.org code base was donated to The Apache Software Foundation. The resulting project, Apache OpenOffice (Incubating) is progressing well as a podling in the Apache Incubator ... ." That's good evidence though it is not clear that it is a required style or just something the writer did, aye? This information *is* definitive: <http://www.apache.org/foundation/records/>. The legal name of the corporation is indeed "The Apache Software Foundation", <http://www.apache.org/foundation/records/certificate.html>. However, it is "[the] ASF", not "The ASF". I wager that the proper name of this project is "Apache ODF Toolkit (Incubating)." Any preceding "the" is simply a definite article and not part of the proper name. - Dennis -----Original Message----- From: Dave Fisher [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 00:36 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: "Apache ODF Toolkit" versus "The Apache ODF Toolkit" On Jan 25, 2012, at 10:37 AM, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote: > "The Hague" is evidently the official, formal name. "Den Hague" in Dutch. > > Back to ODF Toolkit, it appears that "The" as in a formal name is not an > Apache practice. It also becomes awkward to bolt into the name. I wouldn't > say "the Apache ODF Toolkit 0.95." It is The Apache Software Foundation and The ASF. See http://www.apache.org/ For POI. It is The Apache POI Project and also Apache POI. So, for this podling. Is it "The Apache ODF Toolkit Project". "The Apache ODF Toolkit", and/or "Apache ODF Toolkit"? Any of the three, either of two forms, or just one form. It doesn't matter to me. Regards, Dave > > What has us use the definite article in some places and not others is a > mystery. Something for Daniel Pink to blog about, perhaps. > > - Dennis > > PS: I notice that I am finding it easier and easier to just say "ODF Toolkit" > to myself. Curious and more curious. (My spell-checker doesn't want me to > quote Alice in Wonderland.) [ ... ]
