[khy]

I've noticed that the docs sometimes use the verb "spell" in an interesting way, e.g. "IN GROUP is an obsolete spelling of IN ROLE."

[darrenf]

That’s “spelling” the noun, not a verb.

[_moof]

True, but to be fair it's the gerund formed from the verb.

[hunter2_]

The verb form is where the atypical usage originates, so I think it's fair to focus on the verb as the point of interest despite including an example that happens to be a gerund.

Anyway, I think there's an even larger set that "spell" is a member of: metaphorical usage to highlight anything unwanted or erroneous; "code smell" is another.

It's wrong, therefore it smells. It's wrong, therefore it's misspelled. It's wrong, therefore it wants to be different (personification metaphor).

[warrenm]

And here I thought `"spelling" the noun` was a reference to either Tori or Aaron

[warrenm]

apparently no one here watches TV

[sundarurfriend]

I think that usage is a little bit more common eg., I believe I've seen it in Perl docs, and in rare StackOverflow answers.

[closeparen]

I’ve heard this before, e.g. Go’s “while” loop is spelled “for”

[jacobmischka]

Yeah I have as well, I think it's both to be cute and to signify that they're equivalent."'IN GROUP' is an obsolete version of 'IN ROLE'" might mean that it was a subset of the latter with different behavior.