[SciPy-Dev] Does Matlab need to be MATLAB(TM)...

[Pauli Virtanen]

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:41:42 +0100, Dr. David Kirkby wrote:

> On 06/ 4/10 08:07 AM, Matthew Brett wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>> IMHO it should be called MATLAB and not Matlab since that is what
>>> Mathworks call it.
>>
>>> From the wikipedia style guide, I don't think we're obliged to
>> capitalize the way the Mathworks would like, and we can choose whatever
>> reads better.
> 
> If someone came along and changed SciPy to scipy, would you feel it
> appropriate to change it back? I suspect "yes" is the answer. As such,
> why not respect Mathworks and write MATLAB the prefer to write it?

If Mathworks decided to refer to SciPy as SCIPY or Scipy or scipy, I  
would hardly be inclined to correct them, much less raise a lawsuit.

The point is that as long as with "Matlab" we are referring to the 
"MATLAB" produced by Mathworks, not a hypotethical product of our own 
called "Matlab" or "scipy.matlab", this cannot be a trademark 
infringement. IANAL, of course, but it seems clear that the exact 
spelling is hardly an issue of concern.

IMHO English proper name capitalization trumps the "official" spelling, 
but this is not very important.

-- 
Pauli Virtanen