Bug 200007

Summary: "Rotate Right" should be "Rotate clockwise" (left->counterclockwise)
Product: [Applications] okular Reporter: Dotan Cohen <kde-2011.08>
Component: generalAssignee: Okular developers <okular-devel>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: normal CC: aacid, finex, user581
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Ubuntu   
OS: Unspecified   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Dotan Cohen 2009-07-13 11:26:37 UTC 
Version:            (using KDE 4.2.96)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

The "Rotate Right" text should read "Rotate clockwise". (Also, left->counterclockwise). Saying "rotate right/left" is common but incorrect, as an equal amount of the document moves to the left as to the right.
Comment 1 Pino Toscano 2009-07-13 12:09:04 UTC 
Why isn't "rotate left/right" correct?
Comment 2 Dotan Cohen 2009-07-13 12:36:35 UTC 
What part of the file is going left or right? If the top is going to the left, then the bottom is going to the right. There is no absolute left or right movement, rather, everything is spinning around an axis. The direction of spin is clockwise or counter clockwise, not left or right.

This has bugged me for a while but I wanted to confirm with a native English speaker before filing the bug. A friend of my wife is a native English speaker from England, in Great Britain, so I trust her when she says that this is common incorrect usage.

Shall I try to contact an authority such as Oxford for an official opinion?
Comment 3 FiNeX 2009-07-13 13:14:04 UTC 
Dotan is right: clockwise/counterclockwise is correct.

Anyway this type of humour is not necessary here.
Comment 4 Dotan Cohen 2009-07-13 13:30:40 UTC 
> Anyway this type of humour is not necessary here.

I meant no humour, in fact I fail to see the humour. Where does it appear that I was mocking?
Comment 5 Brad Hards 2009-07-13 14:40:02 UTC 
The bit about "Shall I try to contact an authority such as Oxford for an official opinion?" came across as obnoxious and appeared to be an attempt at superiority (rather than humour). Not wanted, and probably deserves an apology.

On the actual original bug, the rotate right / left isn't ambiguous (since the top is implicit, and the icons show which direction it is), but clockwise / anticlockwise would probably be better. I checked acroread, and it uses clockwise / anticlockwise.

I note that okular isn't the only KDE application that uses rotate right / left - I note gwenview does the same.
Comment 6 Dotan Cohen 2009-07-13 15:08:18 UTC 
> The bit about "Shall I try to contact an authority such as
> Oxford for an official opinion?" came across as obnoxious
> and appeared to be an attempt at superiority (rather than
> humour). Not wanted, and probably deserves an apology.

It was meant as neither superiority nor humour.  In my nation (Israel, the only Hebrew-speaking nation on the planet) we have a university that is the official body for deciding what is right and what is wrong in the language. The public can ask them questions, too. I figured that maybe something like that exists for English as well.

Therefore, my offer still stands. Shall I contact an authoritative body on the English language?
Comment 7 Albert Astals Cid 2010-07-05 18:41:31 UTC 
Yes please
Comment 8 Kubuntiac 2010-12-06 10:20:16 UTC 
Left and right are directions of movement. Clockwise / counter clockwise are directions of rotation. This is clearly rotation.
Comment 9 Albert Astals Cid 2012-07-23 22:30:02 UTC 
We are not changing these.