bootloader or boot loader

[Pete Travis]

On Jun 14, 2013 3:03 PM, "Eric H. Christensen" <sparks at fedoraproject.org>
wrote:
>
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> Can someone confirm whether it is bootloader or boot loader?  What's the
standard for Fedora guides?
>
> - -- Eric
>
> - --------------------------------------------------
> Eric "Sparks" Christensen
> Fedora Project - Red Hat
>
> sparks at redhat.com - sparks at fedoraproject.org
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> =thpt
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> --

I just skimmed over the grub manual(1) for hints. There are eight instances
of "bootloader" and forty instances of "boot loader" - so there's a trend
but nothing absolute.

Without looking for further precedent, I like "bootloader". It is a
discrete concept, and IMO worthy of its own compound word. It doesn't work
either way in a literal sense, and to the uninitiated "boot loader" could
just as well be something at the Wolverine factory as something that loads
[the booting of] an operating system. A "bootloader" is clearly not an
incidental pairing of words and therefore provides better connotation for
the reader.

That said, I'm not going to argue if there's an established precedent.

--Pete
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