Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Brad Lucier]

Re:

> In the GCC manuals, which of the spellings "nonzero" and "non-zero" should
> be used?  At present both are.

Mathematics journals definitely prefer "nonzero" (no hyphen).

Brad Lucier

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Russ Allbery]

Brad Lucier <lucier@math.purdue.edu> writes:

> Re:
>> In the GCC manuals, which of the spellings "nonzero" and "non-zero" should
>> be used?  At present both are.

> Mathematics journals definitely prefer "nonzero" (no hyphen).

The 1989 OED prefers non-zero (as in it has an entry for that and has no
entry for nonzero), but it may be out of date.  Nonzero without a hyphen
does appear in the current Merriam-Webster.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@stanford.edu)             < http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/ >

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Phil Edwards]

On Mon, Oct 08, 2001 at 08:50:40PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> >> In the GCC manuals, which of the spellings "nonzero" and "non-zero" should
> >> be used?  At present both are.
> 
> > Mathematics journals definitely prefer "nonzero" (no hyphen).
> 
> The 1989 OED prefers non-zero (as in it has an entry for that and has no
> entry for nonzero), but it may be out of date.  Nonzero without a hyphen
> does appear in the current Merriam-Webster.

Funny you should mention that; there's currently a thread in comp.std.c++
which had a brief side discussion over whether Merriam-Webster was an
appropriate dictionary in technical arenas.  :-)

My only thought is that non-zero might be easier to parse for people who
are not as familiar with English.[*]


Phil
[*] ...such as the editors of the OED, har har har- just kidding!

-- 
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater
than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace.  We seek
not your counsel, nor your arms.  Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you;
and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.            - Samuel Adams

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Joseph S. Myers]

On 8 Oct 2001, Russ Allbery wrote:

> The 1989 OED prefers non-zero (as in it has an entry for that and has no
> entry for nonzero), but it may be out of date.

However, a 1951 quotation it gives for non-zero uses the spelling nonzero
(both spellings are also used in quotations for other words), so the usage
is clearly well-established.

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
jsm28@cam.ac.uk

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Brad Lucier]

> > In the GCC manuals, which of the spellings "nonzero" and "non-zero" should
> > be used?  At present both are.
> 
> Mathematics journals definitely prefer "nonzero" (no hyphen).

To weigh in again in this debate, the Society of Industrial and
Applied Mathematics recommends that "non" as a prefix
not be hyphenated, that "semi" be hyphenated, and that "quasi"
be a separate word.  However, in a paper where I used
both "quasi norm" and "semi-norm" I insisted that both be
written with hyphens, as semi-norm and quasi-norm, and the
copy editor acquiesced.

This Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, recommends that the
following prefixes be used closed (unhyphenated): 
non, ante, anti, bi, bio, co, counter, extra,
infra, inter, intra, macro, meta, micro, mid, mini, multi, neo,
non, over, post, pre, pro, proto, pseudo, re, semi, socio,
sub, super, supra, trans, ultra, un, under
(Table 6.1, page 230).  The exceptions
are capitalized works (anti-Semitic), numerals (pre-1914),
English homonyms (un-ionized, not unionized), more than
one word (non-English-speaking [using a hyphen, since
English-speaking is hyphenated], pre-Civil War [using an
en-dash, since Civil War is open]), prefix standing alone
(macro- and microeconomics), repeated vowels
(anti-inflammatory), misleading or puzzling forms
(anti-utopian).

Brad

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Geert Bosch]

As a final drop, the GNU Coding Standards uses nonzero unhyphenated:

|  There should be a comment on each static variable as well, like this: 
|
|  /* Nonzero means truncate lines in the display;
|     zero means continue them.  */
|  int truncate_lines; 

  -Geert

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Gerald Pfeifer]

Okay, I'm convinced: "nonzero" it is.

Thanks for all who contributed feedback, on the lists or privately,
Gerald

PS: And now, let's go for something more important and fix some bugs. ;-)

Re: Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Florian Weimer]

Brad Lucier <lucier@math.purdue.edu> writes:

> To weigh in again in this debate, the Society of Industrial and
> Applied Mathematics recommends that "non" as a prefix
> not be hyphenated, that "semi" be hyphenated, and that "quasi"
> be a separate word.

What a strange rule!  I haven't read much literature on semigroups, so
I don't know if it is customary to put a hyphen in it, "semi-group"
looks indeed rather strange.  I've never seen "semi-simple" and "quasi
projective".

Perhaps SIAM made these rules only to annoy algebraists? ;-)

Manual style: "non-zero" vs "nonzero"

[Joseph S. Myers]

In the GCC manuals, which of the spellings "nonzero" and "non-zero" should
be used?  At present both are.

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
jsm28@cam.ac.uk