4 ms·

Weird. Last week I just made a commitment to start doing this the "correct" way. I find it's very difficult after years of programming, though. Another proble

Weird. Last week I just made a commitment to start doing this the "correct" way. I find it's very difficult after years of programming, though. Another problem I have is with capitalization on titles. You're supposed to capitalize only the larger words, but I have to go all initial caps. The inconsistency between caps drives me nuts, even though I know it's the "right" way to do things. It's fascinating to see topics like this kind of float around for months or years and then suddenly become news items. Wonder if a shift is really happening? Or is the story just noticing a trend in people making the same mistakes?

gpambrozio 16y ago
It's weird that this just got to the home page of hacker news too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2544198 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2544198. I've never heard about 'logical' puctuation before and today I've seen it twice in HN alone....
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
Silhouette 16y ago
> Another problem I have is with capitalization on titles. You're supposed to capitalize only the larger words, but I have to go all initial caps. The "rules" for titles are particularly stupid. A title is almost invariably distinguished in some other way. If it's a heading, it is typically printed in bold if typeset and underlined if written by hand. Citations are normally printed in italics when typeset and written within quotation marks by hand. Meanwhile, it has been shown beyond any doubt by now that Capitalising Every Word Except a Few in Some Arbitrary Fashion Hurts Readability, which is particularly damaging when you're talking about text that readers will often want to scan at speed.
- justincormack 16y ago
  Down in England title caps like that went out around the 1950s. Compare say the UK Guardian with the New York Times and there is a huge readability difference. US print newspaper design is very retro, like the UK was in the nineteenth and early 20th century.
  - Silhouette 16y ago
    It's true that some of our newspapers here (I'm in England) have moved into the new millenium with their headings, but alas quite a few textbooks and business reports still languish in the typographical dark ages, even new ones. As far as I can tell, title case is still one of those quaint ideas that you teach in English classes at school because the syllabus says so, even though it is an objectively inferior approach and is not particularly popular in real world usage any more. (See also: Almost any comma usage when handwriting letters or envelopes that you were taught as a child; not splitting an infinitive, beginning a sentence with a conjunction, or ending a sentence with a preposition; spelling out certain small integer numbers in full; and your teacher's pet view of the Oxford comma.)
- fanf2 16y ago
  Title caps is much less common in British writing.

gpambrozio 16y ago

It's weird that this just got to the home page of hacker news too: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2544198 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2544198. I've never heard about 'logical' puctuation before and today I've seen it twice in HN alone....

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

Silhouette 16y ago

> Another problem I have is with capitalization on titles. You're supposed to capitalize only the larger words, but I have to go all initial caps. The "rules" for titles are particularly stupid. A title is almost invariably distinguished in some other way. If it's a heading, it is typically printed in bold if typeset and underlined if written by hand. Citations are normally printed in italics when typeset and written within quotation marks by hand. Meanwhile, it has been shown beyond any doubt by now that Capitalising Every Word Except a Few in Some Arbitrary Fashion Hurts Readability, which is particularly damaging when you're talking about text that readers will often want to scan at speed.

justincormack 16y ago
Down in England title caps like that went out around the 1950s. Compare say the UK Guardian with the New York Times and there is a huge readability difference. US print newspaper design is very retro, like the UK was in the nineteenth and early 20th century.
- Silhouette 16y ago
  It's true that some of our newspapers here (I'm in England) have moved into the new millenium with their headings, but alas quite a few textbooks and business reports still languish in the typographical dark ages, even new ones. As far as I can tell, title case is still one of those quaint ideas that you teach in English classes at school because the syllabus says so, even though it is an objectively inferior approach and is not particularly popular in real world usage any more. (See also: Almost any comma usage when handwriting letters or envelopes that you were taught as a child; not splitting an infinitive, beginning a sentence with a conjunction, or ending a sentence with a preposition; spelling out certain small integer numbers in full; and your teacher's pet view of the Oxford comma.)
fanf2 16y ago
Title caps is much less common in British writing.