Review existing ban on "screenshot"?

[julian-cable]

The guide currently bans "screenshot" in favour of "screen capture". That guidance reflects what IBM Style specified many years ago, but in recent years, IBM has allowed either term. Should we now follow suit and also allow either term?

[daobrien]

For the sake of consistency, we should choose one or the other.

@sffrench @rclee33

[sffrench]

I choose screenshot, I feel it is the most common name for it, but also don't mind the use of both together.

[julian-cable]

I suggest allowing either term. I would hesitate to ban a term in the absence of any concerns about its usage.

[rclee33]

I'm fine with allowing either term. I'm also fine with preferring one over the other. Personally, what I think is most important is removing the references to the IBM Style guide (for these word usage entries) if we deviate from their usage.

There's an interesting discussion here: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/280448/screenshot-vs-screen-capture

TLDR: One possible difference between the two terms is that "screencapture" refers to the action of capturing the screen (either still image or video), while "screenshot" refers to the outcome of the action (the image itself). To be clear, I don't think we necessarily need to abide by this or include any of that in our own guidance. I just thought it was interesting.

[julian-cable]

@rclee33. For this entry we do indeed need to remove "See the relevant entry in the IBM Style Guide." Thanks also for sharing that interesting link. I think that nowadays, "screenshot" is the more commonly used of the two terms. Merriam-Webster has an entry for "screenshot" but not for "screen capture". The latter term would have been more used 10-15 years ago, but not so much now.

[daobrien]

Allowing both goes against basic principles of "one term, one meaning" and "use the same term for the same meaning". I've been working on reducing instances of this issue for ages. I don't want to engage reverse gear now.

[julian-cable]

If we must choose one term to use, I would go for "screenshot", based on its common usage.

[julian-cable]

Change of guidance to implement for the next release.

[rclee33]

Just noting that if we update the style guide to allow "screenshot", we'll need to update aspell as well. Currently, aspell flags "screenshot" and suggests variations that are not acceptable: "screen shot" and "screen-shot".

What's the next step here, opening an issue on the aspell repo and linking it to this one?

@daobrien

[PatSharp99]

It seems like you have all come to a resolution, to use just "screenshot" and update the style guide, remove the reference to the IBM style guide, and update aspell. Please execute this as you have described. Thank you.

[julian-cable]

Yes indeed, this is in scope for the 6.2 release.