[OT] Question for Kellie Fitton

I have been lurking, trying to get a feel for the NG before I post, and
I must apologize that my first post is OT.

Kellie, your idiosyncratic method of arbitrarily uppercasing words in
the middle of sentences and letters in compound words is driving me
nuts! Why are you doing it? Do you even know that you are doing it? Is
it a hangover from a programming style that is just so ingrained that
you cannot shake it?

Every time I read a post from you, I'm thrown off my tracks and I can
feel my brain stuttering over the unfamiliar and unexpected capital
letters. My reading and comprehension speed drops to near zero as most
of my scarce mental faculties are sidetracked into compensating for the
bumpy text.

So I end up not reading any of your posts to the end and not being able
to recall one single concept from any of your posts. I think you ask
interesting questions and provide interesting answers, I just ...
stumble.

No offense, but just really curious.
Curious Mike (with apologies to George the Curious Monkey)

Mike wrote:
>
> I have been lurking, trying to get a feel for the NG before I post, and
> I must apologize that my first post is OT.
>
> Kellie, your idiosyncratic method of arbitrarily uppercasing words in
> the middle of sentences and letters in compound words is driving me
> nuts! Why are you doing it? Do you even know that you are doing it? Is
> it a hangover from a programming style that is just so ingrained that
> you cannot shake it?
>
> Every time I read a post from you, I'm thrown off my tracks and I can
> feel my brain stuttering over the unfamiliar and unexpected capital
> letters. My reading and comprehension speed drops to near zero as most
> of my scarce mental faculties are sidetracked into compensating for the
> bumpy text.
>


She'll have to speak for herself, of course, but I'd guess that Kellie
is used to programming in languages like C & Progress, where practioners
are encouraged to make up their variable names to indicate their type
and function.  For instance, in Progress: InpShrIntxxx is an Input type
(i.e., passed on from one program to another), Shared (only has to be
defined once for multiple linked programs), Integer variable named xxx.
The rationale is that sticking to a convention like this will make sure
that the variable is used in the correct way.  I've never found this to
be of much use: my invariable problem has been "what the heck did I call
the thing??"; but where it's a shop standard I've adhered to it.  I may
add that even the most experienced programmers don't stick to it 100%;
if a variable is used in only one tiny portion of the program it's
tempting just to call it "thing" and be done with it.  The capital
letters delineate the various type & usage sub-names.

That being said, if you find that the appearance of a capital letter in
the middle of something stops your reading in its tracks, then you too
are stuck in a hangover of a programming style that's so ingrained that
you cannot shake it.  That doesn't reflect on you too well.  Those of us
that hail from the cardbasher days are used to writing programs wholly
in upper case, although if we're maintaining something that's written in
lower case or mixed  we'll do our alterations in lower case or mixed.
Or if it's a shop standard we'll write in lower case or mixed.  I'm sure
that accomplished programmers of the more recent vintages would agree.
There is no virtue or advantage in lower or upper case per se (except in
languages that are case-sensitive with variable names, of course).

I'm aware that it is an e-mail assumption that upper case = shouting.
In fact, people I know claim that a message wholly in upper case gives
them a headache!  That's a silly reaction and indicates only their
rigidity of mind.

UPPER case, lower case, or miXed: all are valid.  Get used to it.  If
you really can't handle all three then (with respect) you're limiting
yourself and your usefulness.

(For myself: if it hand't been for this posting I would never have
noticed Kellie's style).

Peter

"Peter Lacey" <lacey@mb.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:428B7DE8.AF18636C@mb.sympatico.ca...

> That being said, if you find that the appearance of a capital letter in
> the middle of something stops your reading in its tracks, then you too
> are stuck in a hangover of a programming style that's so ingrained that
> you cannot shake it.  That doesn't reflect on you too well.

Not necessarily.  The conventions I would expect in written English prose
are rather different from the conventions I would expect to find reasonable
in a COBOL program, a Pascal program, or a C program of whatever dialect or
coding convention.

More to the Point, the Conventions i would expect to see in english Prose
are rather different from the Conventions i might expect to see in the
german Equivalent of that Prose.

Seeing unUsual capitalizAtions in what purPorts to be Written English slows
me down as well, reGardless of the justifiCation the Author might conSider
apPropriate for ensUring that the Reader finds the Written communiCations
clear and Readily underStandable.

-Chuck Stevens

Chuck Stevens wrote:
>
> "Peter Lacey" <lacey@mb.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:428B7DE8.AF18636C@mb.sympatico.ca...
> 
>
> Not necessarily.  The conventions I would expect in written English prose
> are rather different from the conventions I would expect to find reasonabl
e
> in a COBOL program, a Pascal program, or a C program of whatever dialect o
r
> coding convention.
>
> More to the Point, the Conventions i would expect to see in english Prose
> are rather different from the Conventions i might expect to see in the
> german Equivalent of that Prose.

"I" isn't capitalized in German?  And adjectives aren't?

>
> Seeing unUsual capitalizAtions in what purPorts to be Written English slow
s
> me down as well, reGardless of the justifiCation the Author might conSider
> apPropriate for ensUring that the Reader finds the Written communiCations
> clear and Readily underStandable.

I doubt that Kellie has given any thought to justifying the style of her
postings.
>
>     -Chuck Stevens

Given the utter lack of concern for correct grammar, spelling,
punctuation and coherence that is demonstrated so often in e-mail
missives, bitching about inappropriate use of capital letters is
inordinately trivial.

I may be in a time warp, but to me "written" means "on paper".   I would
agree that  different and higher standards exist for proper written
communications.  In fact, I don't see why the same standards shouldn't
apply for both written and e-mail communications (although I know very
well that that battle was lost many years ago).

I'll stick to my original point: you have to take your communications,
especially on-line communications, as you find them.  If you can't or
won't, you'll damage yourself.  After all, Kellie is under no obligation
to write her posts to suit anyone at all as long as they are precise and
convey the message she wants them to.
PL

In article <428C1085.B59BA5B1@mb.sympatico.ca>,
Peter Lacey  <lacey@mb.sympatico.ca> wrote:

[snip]

>I may be in a time warp, but to me "written" means "on paper".

Wow... what is done to convey language by means of letters on, say, a
billboard?

DD

"Peter Lacey" <lacey@mb.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:428C1085.B59BA5B1@mb.sympatico.ca...
 
Prose 
>
> "I" isn't capitalized in German?  And adjectives aren't?

So far as I know, all other things being equal, neither pronouns nor
adjectives are capitalized in German unless some other positional rule (like
initial in a sentence or in formal text following a colon) applies.  An
example from the 1984 edition of the Luther Bibel, Lukas 23:46, illustrating
an assortment of pronouns:  "Und Jesus rief laut:  Vater, ich befehle meinen
Geist in deine Haende! ... ", and another from Lukas 23:50 illustrating
adjectives:  "Und siehe ... der war ein guter, frommer Mann ...".   Even
pronouns referencing the divine aren't capitalized as they are in English.

-Chuck Stevens

"Peter Lacey" <lacey@mb.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:428C1085.B59BA5B1@mb.sympatico.ca...

> Given the utter lack of concern for correct grammar, spelling,
> punctuation and coherence that is demonstrated so often in e-mail
> missives, bitching about inappropriate use of capital letters is
> inordinately trivial.

Hey, I didn't bring it up.

I was responding to *your* post to the effect that anyone stumbling while
attempting to read text in which the words have capital letters in the
middle of them is that they were "stuck in a hangover of a programming style
that's so ingrained that you cannot shake it."

I would contend that the number of people who have never written so much as
a line of computer source code in their lives, have no intention of doing
so, are quite able to read e-mail messages that follow the rules of written
English, and that would stumble over what looks like English but
capriciously includes capital letters in the *middle* of words far exceeds
the number of people who do so because of a particular programming style!

As for me, if I'm writing stuff that I expect a Pascal compiler to
comprehend, I follow the conventions of Pascal.  If I'm writing in COBOL, I
follow conventions appropriate to that language or risk having the compiler
stumble over my text.

For the same reasons, if I'm writing something I expect a reader of English
to understand, I believe it is reasonable to follow the conventions of
written English, not those of C, Pascal, ALGOL, COBOL, Java, APL, German or
the pinyin or Wade-Giles transliterations of Mandarin, with or without tone
marks!

-Chuck Stevens