I think my reservation may come more from what I'm saying in this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898053 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898

I think my reservation may come more from what I'm saying in this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898053 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1898053 Even if a computer could translate netspeak to "Proper English," it would still be computer-translated "Proper English." The idea of allowing a computer to choose which words to use, or where punctuation should go, or anything like that, is unsettling to me. The translation model works for programming languages because compilers have no emotions, but any message that starts out in shorthand with the intention of being read by a human is intrinsically hamstrung. In fact, this can be true for programming languages, too! C is like short-hand; the compiler is what turns our netspeak (C) into "Proper English" (assembly/machine code). It usually works, but sometimes you just have to dip into assembly to really express what you mean.