doc: Spelling of LAMBDA in digraph table

[Max Mahlke]

Dear all,

in runtime/doc/digraph.txt, the greek letter lambda is spelt LAMDA. I
was looking for it under the accepted spelling LAMBDA, though I am aware
that some people prefer the LAMDA spelling. I see that the vim source
makes frequent use of both spellings.

I would therefore suggest changing

runtime/doc/digraph.txt
550:Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA
581:λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA

to

runtime/doc/digraph.txt
550:Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA/LAMBDA
581:λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA/LAMBDA

I would gladly submit a PR for this change on GitHub.

Apologies if this has been discussed before, I have not found any
mention in the mailing list archives or on the GitHub repository.

Kind regards
Max Mahlke

[Tony Mechelynck]

tl·dr : See last paragraph but one, below.

When I was in secondary school, in the Latin-Greek section of a school
where instruction was given in French, I learnt to call this letter
"lambda". However the official, unchangeable names as shown in the
"Greek and Coptic" Unicode reference file
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf are GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
LAMDA and GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA respectively. The small letter, but
not the capital, has under its official name there the commentary "=
lambda".

The names in all-caps used in Vim, and in particular by the optional
Unicode plugin by Christian Brabandt, but also at lines 179sqq of the
standard digraph.txt helpfile, are the official names published by the
Unicode Consortium. We shouldn't change them at will, even though I
too would use the name "lambda" with b for the Greek letter Λλ and
even though the English Wiktionary entry for "lamda"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lamda gives as definition "Misspelling
of *lambda*" with a Usage note: "This spelling appears in the Unicode
standard (U+0039B, U+003BB)."

So it appears that the use of the word LAMDA in those names is a
misspelling which was taken up in an official standard which cannot
ever be modified (because the rules of the Unicode standard include
never modifying the official name of a codepoint once it has been
defined, not even to correct an error). A deplorable fact, to be sure,
but I think that we have to live with that misspelled all-caps
unchangeable official name.

All hope is not lost, however. One thing we _could_ do, if Bram
agrees, is define help tags *Lambda* and *lambda* right where these
"official misspellings" are found in the digraph.txt helpfile. Then
":help Lambda" and ":help lambda" would bring us to the appropriate
digraphs.

Another thing which any Vim user should do who, like me, frequently
uses Greek letters absent from his/her keyboard, is commit to memory
the fact that digraphs for Greek letters are characterized by a Latin
letter followed by an asterisk: so ^K a * gives the letter alpha, ^K b
* gives the letter beta, ^K L * gives upper-case lambda, etc., with
the particularity that ^K s * is a "normal" sigma while the "final"
sigma is ^K * s. In addition, typing :dig! in Normal mode displays the
list of digraphs with section headers. You'll find the Greek alphabet
as part of the "Greek and Coptic" section.

Best regards,
Tony.

[Bram Moolenaar]

[resend - message got rejected somewhere]

Max Mahlke wrote:

> in runtime/doc/digraph.txt, the greek letter lambda is spelt LAMDA. I
> was looking for it under the accepted spelling LAMBDA, though I am aware
> that some people prefer the LAMDA spelling. I see that the vim source
> makes frequent use of both spellings.

The unicode consortium uses LAMDA. It does mention "lambda" below
"GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA". I have no clue where the difference comes
from.

> I would therefore suggest changing
>
> runtime/doc/digraph.txt
> 550:Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA
> 581:λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA
>
> to
>
> runtime/doc/digraph.txt
> 550:Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA/LAMBDA
> 581:λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA/LAMBDA
>
> I would gladly submit a PR for this change on GitHub.

I think adding "aka LAMBDA" is appropriate.

--
Just think of all the things we haven't thought of yet.

/// Bram Moolenaar -- Br...@Moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net \\\
/// \\\
\\\ sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ ///
\\\ help me help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF-Holland.org ///

[Bram Moolenaar]

[resend - message got rejected somewhere]

Max Mahlke wrote:

> in runtime/doc/digraph.txt, the greek letter lambda is spelt LAMDA. I
> was looking for it under the accepted spelling LAMBDA, though I am aware
> that some people prefer the LAMDA spelling. I see that the vim source
> makes frequent use of both spellings.

The unicode consortium uses LAMDA. It does mention "lambda" below
"GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA". I have no clue where the difference comes
from.

> I would therefore suggest changing
>
> runtime/doc/digraph.txt
> 550:Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA
> 581:λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA
>
> to
>
> runtime/doc/digraph.txt
> 550:Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA/LAMBDA
> 581:λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA/LAMBDA
>
> I would gladly submit a PR for this change on GitHub.

I think adding "aka LAMBDA" is apprpriate.

--
I'd like to meet the man who invented sex and see what he's working on now.

[Dominique Pellé]

Bram Moolenaar <Br...@moolenaar.net> wrote:

> Max Mahlke wrote:
>
> > in runtime/doc/digraph.txt, the greek letter lambda is spelt LAMDA. I
> > was looking for it under the accepted spelling LAMBDA, though I am aware
> > that some people prefer the LAMDA spelling. I see that the vim source
> > makes frequent use of both spellings.
>
> The unicode consortium uses LAMDA. It does mention "lambda" below
> "GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA". I have no clue where the difference comes
> from.

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda gives an explanation:

> Lambda (/ˈlæmdə/;[1] uppercase Λ, lowercase λ; Greek: λάμ(β)δα, lám(b)da)
> ...snip...
> Unicode uses the (Modern Greek-based) spelling "lamda" in
> character names, instead of "lambda", due to "the pre-existing
> names in ISO 8859-7, as well as preferences expressed by
> the Greek National Body".

[Max Mahlke]

> Tony:

> However the official, unchangeable names as shown in the
> "Greek and Coptic" Unicode reference file
> http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf are GREEK CAPITAL LETTER
> LAMDA and GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA respectively. The small letter, but
> not the capital, has under its official name there the commentary "=
> lambda".

Thank you for the background information Tony. Indeed, as Dominique
points out, it seems that the Greek National Body preferred the LAMDA
spelling as it is closer to the Greek spelling ΛΑΜΔΑ. The B has no place
in this word. However, LAMBDA is the official English spelling and used
everywhere outside the Unicode reference as far as I can tell.

Since the Unicode reference added the English spelling as a comment, the
vim documentation could do so as well in my opinion.

> Bram:
> I think adding "aka LAMBDA" is apprpriate.

I agree. I will open a PR.

Cheers
Max

[Bram Moolenaar]

> > Bram:
> > I think adding "aka LAMBDA" is apprpriate.
>
> I agree. I will open a PR.

I now have this:

Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA (aka LAMBDA)
λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA (aka LAMBDA)

No need to send a PR if this is OK.

--
"To whoever finds this note -
I have been imprisoned by my father who wishes me to marry
against my will. Please please please please come and rescue me.
I am in the tall tower of Swamp Castle."
SIR LAUNCELOT's eyes light up with holy inspiration.
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail" PYTHON (MONTY) PICTURES LTD

[Max Mahlke]

> I now have this:
>
> Λ L* 039B 0923 GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA (aka LAMBDA)
> λ l* 03BB 0955 GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA (aka LAMBDA)
>
> No need to send a PR if this is OK.

Looks good to me! Bedankt.