Ask HN: Do you use 'open source' or 'open-source'?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9370666

by TheMissingPiece • 11 years ago

3 4 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It seems to be split 50/50 across the board. What do you use? Open source or open-source?

MichaelCrawford• 11 years ago

I use Open Source and Free Software (capitalized) as well as free as in beer (lowercase).

No one else seems to be picking up on my typographical hacktivism though.

steanne• 11 years ago

open source is a compound noun. open-source is a compound adjective.

Nadya• 11 years ago

I use "open source" personally, but it depends if there is ambiguity.

"Open-source" is a compound modifier which are used to avoid ambiguity.

Example: "Man-eating shark" could be read "man eating shark" without the hyphen, which can change the meaning to a man eating a shark instead of a shark eating a man.

Wikipedia switches constantly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source

"open-source" occurs 138 times "open source" occurs 119 times

I can't think of a scenario where "open source" leads to ambiguity. I would argue "open-source" removes any chance of ambiguity and is the better choice, but for aesthetic purposes I prefer "open source".

MalcolmDiggs• 11 years ago

I usually use "open source" but I try to refer to the actual license to avoid ambiguity whenever possible. e.g: rather than say "This repo is open source" I'd rather say "This repo is MIT licensed".

Ask HN: Do you use 'open source' or 'open-source'?

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