4 ms·
why do lower case letters even exist? in 100 years might they be done with?
by modzu 6y ago
why do lower case letters even exist? in 100 years might they be done with?
- beckyb 6y agothey are way easier to read than all uppercase.
- bonzini 6y agoSome argue that mixed case texts are more readable because the ascenders and descenders provide "synchronization points" for our eyes in scanning text. Also (and less controversially) uppercase is larger so it is slower to read it, because there are more pauses to move your eyes to the beginning of the next line.
- modzu 6y agothanks for this. but c.f., javascript vs python syntax
- ars 6y agoThere are plenty of languages without upper and lowercase, I've never heard of them being slower to read.
- bonzini 6y agoYes, that's why the first point is more controversial. But the second is interesting: alphabets that lack lowercase, like Korean hangul, have bigger characters but they pack more information into each of them.
- kps 6y agoLower-case letters evolved from handwritten Roman letters. Upper-case is exactly carved Roman letters. Mixed-case comes from initials — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial
- WY3JBHIL3KLPN5B 6y agoyou wrote your comment entirely in lower case. i'd imagine upper case letters ceasing to exist before upper case letters.
- modzu 6y agosince the responses have mostly been literal (no pun intended) perhaps i should clarify, i meant "case" in general