Fix spelling of units

[getsnoopy]

This commit fixes the spelling of the SI unit of length throughout the
code, and simplifies the map legend to only use symbols for terseness
and so that the spelling issue is circumvented, making the legend more
universal.

[qwkynuf]

I don't personally care, but I would point out that since both "meter" and "metre" are both common and accepted (at least in North America), changing the spelling throughout the app doesn't necessarily eliminate confusion - it just changes who is confused.

[wiedehopf]

cde2e6e

Easier to merge then revert the metr`e stuff :)

[getsnoopy]

@qwkynuf metre is the only proper and official spelling in all dialects of English since it's defined in the SI standard. Many in the US just simply ignore the standard, but it doesn't mean it's correct; all the proper US standards organization follow it: US Metric Association, ASTM, etc.

[qwkynuf]

So, I guess the National Institute of Standards and Technology isn't a proper US standards organization? Here's a whole article on their website describing how the meter came to be a metric unit of length: https://www.nist.gov/si-redefinition/meter

Our dictionaries are all in on the conspiracy too!

Merriam-Webster: meter; noun: the base unit of length in the International System of Units that is equal to the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in ¹/₂₉₉,₇₉₂,₄₅₈ second or to about 39.37 inches

Dictionary.com: meter; noun: the fundamental unit of length in the metric system, equivalent to 39.37 U.S. inches, originally intended to be, and being very nearly, equal to one ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the pole measured on a meridian: defined from 1889 to 1960 as the distance between two lines on a platinum-iridium bar (the “International Prototype Meter”) preserved at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris; from 1960 to 1983 defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red radiation of krypton 86 under specified conditions; and now defined as 1/299,792,458 of the distance light travels in a vacuum in one second. Abbreviation: m

Collins English Dictionary: meter; countable noun: A meter is a metric unit of length equal to 100 centimeters.
[US]
REGIONAL NOTE:
in BRIT, use [metre]

thefreedictionary.com: meter; noun: The international standard unit of length, approximately equivalent to 39.37 inches. It was redefined in 1983 as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second. (there is a subnote that 'meter' is the American English version of 'metre'

vocabulary.com: meter; noun: the basic unit of length adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites (approximately 1.094 yards)

An article on study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-meter-definition-conversion.html

etc, etc, etc

So, is "simply ignoring the standard" the same as "American English is simply different than European English", and that one is not necessarily "more right" than the other?. Here's a thought - if you really want to make it "right", then regionalize the code so that it automatically selects the correct spelling based on the settings of each user's system.

Seems like a strange hill to be bent on planting your flag on, but you do you.

[getsnoopy]

@qwkynuf Nobody said it's a conspiracy; I'm not sure what you're on about. I work directly with the people at NIST and the BIPM. NIST cannot legally spell it as metre because of the GPO Style Manual that decides to use Merriam-Webster as its core dictionary; otherwise, everybody there already would be spelling it identically to the international standard. Hence, per the 1866 Metric Act, the Director of NIST (through the authority of the Secretary of Commerce) just changes the international SI brochure, swapping out international spellings with US ones (yes, this actually happens), before republishing it in the US. So in this sense, yes, even NIST doesn't follow the international standard. And the BIPM already believes that "meter" is deprecated, and therefore doesn't use it or endorse it.

I think you're confusing standards with what dictionaries say. Dictionaries provide commonly used spellings, not necessarily correct ones (which, in this case, are ironically only common in the first place because they originally changed the spelling from the standard one; see: Merriam-Webster). The SI is an international standard, so what dictionaries say doesn't matter. It's no different to how British dictionaries say that colour is the prevailing spelling (which it is), but color is the only correct spelling when it comes to CSS. Or how US dictionaries will say aluminum and cesium are prevalent spellings despite them being incorrect according to the IUPAC, or how British dictionaries will say sulphur is prevalent despite it being incorrect according to the same body.

It's not about planting any flags; when it comes to technical matters like engineering / aviation, obviously, (international) standards matter. It makes little sense to be using dictionaries as some bastions of standards when they're biased to begin with.