Nobody/Anonymous - 2007-02-20

Should it be "User Defined" rather than "User Define" in
User Defined Windows or User Defined Language?

For examples, we would say:
A red-painted door rather than a red-paint door.
A closed-door session rather than a close-door session.
An educated person rather than an educate person.

We normally use the past participle rather than an infinitive as an adjective and a gerund as an adverb (a running man). The reason, in my analysis, is that a door has to have been closed or painted in the past before it could be considered in a completely closed or red door. Whereas, an adverb describes an on-going action - which is why it is a gerund.

There are rare exceptions - many American software licensing agreements have the phrase
" ... cannot be reproduced without the express permission of XYZSoftCo ..."
which should have been
" ... without the expressed permission ..."
Otherwise, it would mean that even if XYZSoftCo gave you permission but in a slow (as opposed to an express) pace, you are not allowed to make a copy of that software.

However, due to its tradition of being used for the past twenty years in American software industry, an English teacher friend of mine believe it is unacceptably accepted legal language.