"scroll bar" or "scrollbar"?

[dsiders]

If you were describing a TCustomScrollBar control, how would you write descriptive text for it? Not the control class name, but descriptive text. I've seen it both ways in existing content.

"displays a scroll bar" (note the space) and
"displays a scrollbar"

Inquiring minds want to know...

[TRon]

Why not scroll-bar ? or as i prefer it: scrolling bar, a bar that has scrolling abilities 

fwiw different dictionaries seems to use even so many variants as you mentioned. I believe the origin is in the language indeed starting with a bar that scrolls became a scroll bar to end up as a scrollbar, as words usually seem to evolve over time ? English isn't my first language though, so i might be (very) wrong there.

It doesn't matter much as long as we all understand what it means ?

imho it make more sense to me to name it a slider, but that seems taken by more sophisticated knobs and buttons that can move along a line.

[dbannon]

I suspect you could be both right and wrong either way.

If we accept "scrollbar" then that means we have added a new word to the (English ?) language. And someone is sure to complain that we no longer speak like Shakespeare.

If you use "scroll bar" you are referring to the bar and qualifying it as type 'scroll', 'scroll' is an adjective.  And we do say it like that still IHMO.

Personally, I think a scrollbar is a thing in its own right, it deserves its own name. So, I would leave out the space.  But I am an engineer and scientist, not skills with the English Language at all !

The Oxford  puts a dash in there, scroll-bar; Collins, Webster and Cambridge say Scroll bar; Wikipedia scrollbar.  Like I said, you will offend someone how ever you do it !

Davo

[trev]

Language changes over time. Common two word phrases often end up progressing through hyphenation to conjunction. Take for example car roll bars, er roll-bars, er, rollbars for a very similar example.

My Collins English Dictionary now lists it as "rollbar" one word.