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I don't think you can use a word like "obsolete" in this context. There hasn't been any dramatic upset or change in usage - capitalisation is as useful, or not,
by sho 17y ago
I don't think you can use a word like "obsolete" in this context. There hasn't been any dramatic upset or change in usage - capitalisation is as useful, or not, as it ever was.
It may indeed be useless, but that's another question. Many (most?) other languages have no concept of capital letters; personally, I like it in English - it does convey meaning and enhances readability, IMO.
I like capitals. But I think like many, I don't use them in certain contexts - IM, for example, which is highly informal and, more importantly, every sentence is on a new line. This is why full stops can be dropped there too, and it doesn't look weird or hard to read. But in continuous prose, like here - I would argue they are useful. The post, for example, is just that little bit harder to read for his lack of capitalisation.
The cost is not too high. Compared to glyph-based languages, English is remarkably efficient in terms of character space, so it's not like we'd benefit all that much from a reduced character set. It might indeed help in typing emails but .. I've never really considered that so much of a burden? The proper solution isn't to ditch the capitals, it's to finally perfect continuous speech dictation...
update: isn't the author really proposing that formal speech itself is obsolete?
- Hexstream 17y ago"I think like many, I don't use them in certain contexts - IM, for example, which is highly informal and, more importantly, every sentence is on a new line." I used to do/think like that, too. But now that I've been touchtyping for a while I find the cost of hitting that shift key is really close to zero so I don't bother not capitalizing properly everywhere, IM included. To everyone in this community who still isn't touchtyping: You're missing out. You're missing out!
- sho 17y agoOh, I touchtype, or close enough anyway. Typing capitals has little or no cost. But to capitalise on IM, and to use fullstops, now seems overly formal to me, inappropriate in casual conversation with friends. It's quite fascinating, really, how these things develop. For example: friend: seen reddit today? me: no # <-- devoid of further meaning, a neutral tone me: No. # <-- overbearing and formal, almost a put-down: "No, of course not. Stop wasting my time." Language, and its contextual use, evolves rapidly and I would now argue that capitalisation and full stops in IM have taken on a different meaning than when used in regular prose.