Design by committee is not the best but if you need one more view to be convinced, as a non native English speakers the property names proposed are not communicating the meaning very well. Eg Defining the gap but drawing the separator.
It’s the correct term from the technical vocabulary of book layout and printing. A rule is a line separating things on a page, while a border is a box.[0]. While the term originates in book printing shops, native English speakers would recognize it most easily from the terms “standard ruled” and “college ruled” as applied to loose-leaf notebook paper, describing the faint blue, printed horizontal lines providing guidance for straight handwriting.[1]
I remember this argument from the 90s where large numbers of people were upset at having to learn the world "Font". What it came down to was, either you use the correct existing term, or you create a new term and end up with constant conflict between the two.
Funnily the word "font" is in fact now used in digital publishing for what is more properly called "typeface". In traditional typesetting "font" refers to one specific size, weight and style of a typeface. That is, Helvetica is a typeface, Helvetica Light Oblique 12pt is a font.
I only know because a friend of mine studied design at the university.
Seems fine to me, it’s a fun piece of trivia for me that I am happy my friend told me. And at the same time, I don’t feel cheated for not having learned it myself in my education as mine was not in design :p
Also it does open up a neat avenue for designers to troll people if they are feeling mischievous.
Client: “This looks great, but could we try a different font?”
While that may be true, I’ll say that as a native English speaker that reading is not the most obvious reading of “row rule”, which to me would be “A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.”
Indeed a “CSS rule” is already a thing and it has nothing to do with lines.
While that is right, “divider” or “divider line” are common as well, and easier to search for. Try a search for “rule page layout” or “rule typography” or “rule css”.
Admittedly, we already have <hr> and <table rules="…">.
> From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root h₃reǵ-; see regent. Doublet of rail, regal, regula and rigol.
Thanks that's helpful to know they picked a valid term, but if I'd hold a no-context poll (unless I mention ruler) a significant number of people wouldn't know this.
How many of those people would know what CSS is though? Or understand the distinction between "internet" and "web"? Heck, a lot of people don't even understand the distinction between "wifi" and "internet" let alone anything actually technical.
I do get your point and can honestly relate to it. But I wouldn't argue that a no-context poll is the right way to define specialist jargon.
Choosing terminology without context is probably a terrible idea in general; you’re basically forcing everything to fit that “describe complex topics like I’m a toddler” framework, which is terribly inefficient for any non-novice practitioner in the subject.
The more important aspect is that, within the context, it’s internally consistent. If I bother to learn my terms, I’ll be able to utilize it functionally. And of course, that the term can actually be explained
No? Both "rule" and "ruler" can denote this thing also called straightedge; but the word "ruler" is more commonly used in this sense, while "rule" generally means an instruction.
But here the meaning of "rule" is not "straightedge", but rather the derived meaning "a thin printed line or dash". So "ruler" would be improper because that word doesn't have the typographical meaning.
Wait, so the "ruler guides" are misnamed, they are just "rules"?
In any case, the things they added could very well have been called "column-divider" and "row-divider" with much less ambiguity because not everyone who has to wrangle with CSS is a designer by profession or by choice.
In page layout software, the thin UI elements bordering the left side and top side of the page, with the little tick marks, is called a ruler. The tick marks on the ruler are called rules (just like the rules on a physical ruler used for measuring things). When you click/drag on the ruler elements, you create guides (or guidelines).
I’ve never seen “ruler guides” verbatim, but I would take that to be shorthand for “guides one could create using the ruler” (which would be a mouthful) to disambiguate the word “guide” when there isn’t sufficient context for the reader to likely understand what was meant.
"ruler guide" - One of those English noun chains that my translators hate so much. Because in most other languages you actually do have to say "the guide of the ruler" or some comparably awkward mouthful.
> A ruler, sometimes called a rule, scale or a line gauge or metre/meter stick, is an instrument used to make length measurements, whereby a length is read from a series of markings called "rules" along an edge of the device.
