On spelling
I’m probably setting myself up for a nice big fall - straight onto my ass - but why is it that supposed programmers/web developers have a seemingly limitless ability to abuse the english language. I don’t want this to be another “the internet is ruining spelling” post, and that’s not what I’m saying; what I am saying is that the internet allows you access to a whole lot of written work that you usually wouldn’t see. I might be friends with x and y, but 10 years ago I wouldn’t see much of their writing outside of school. Suddenly introduce the internet and weblogs, and it becomes disturbingly apparent that a lot of people can’t spell a lot of words. I’m not trying to be a grammar/spelling nazi; I mean I am quite the comma abuser, but I like to think my sentences and paragraphs generally leave little room for ambiguity or downright confusion.
On top of this, some of the worst offenders are programmers, and this really annoys me. Programmers are supposedly meant to have a logical mind - sure you can go on about the creativity of coding and letting your raw brain waves shape some sort of master program, or some other crap - but facts are facts, a compiler/interpreter has to parse your code at some point, and it can only parse something that follows the right conventions and uses the correct symbols. I know some people whose spelling is predictably terrible, so at least (or unfortunately) when they misspell a variable name, they consistently misspell it, and thus the compiler never knows the difference. And let us not delve into the abuses exclamation marks suffer.
Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of someone who wears their underwear on their head.
Furthermore, Firefox 2 comes with a built-in spell checker that underlines any errors that you may have made when filling in a text area on a web page… and if you’re in the web development business and not using Firefox, perhaps it’s time you left the web development business, preferably via way of suicide.
I shall leave you with a list of correct spellings for common errors that really make me go, “Grrr… “:
weird, dependent, guarantee, government, definite.
lucia on May 25th, 2007
Those are definately… oops, i mean definitely annoying ‘grr’ words ;)
A lot of people writing on the internet seem to only have a functional level of literacy. Most people read as little as they possibly can: they restrict reading to things like bank statements, forum posts, the odd email and perhaps a blog or news item. I know plenty of people that have never read a book for the pleasure of it, and you can tell this immediately the moment you read their blogs.
Although correct spelling is not vital, when it is erroneous to the point that communication is broken down, there is a serious problem.
So stop being lazy, watch out for that broken red line ‘neath your nasty error, and read a book sometime.
Nick on May 25th, 2007
It’s all about context for me. If your a professional trying to communicate to the public via the web then decent spelling would be appropriate.
If you’re chatting to your drinking buddy in msn, well spelling and grammar tend to go out the window - especially while trying to fit in that witty remark before your friend types something else.
Hmmm, somehow I think that was the whole point of your post but I skimmed so I can’t be sure :p
Robin on May 29th, 2007
Sorry mike, I know that this post is directed at me… I’m not sure I agree with Lucia though, I read a ton but my spelling goes through phases. I don’t think the blame should be leveled entirely at the people that misspell, The english language is a mess with so many words sounding alike, with origins in different languages (and therefore spelled differently). The simplified spelling society has something to say about this:
“If head, said and friend were simplified down to ‘hed’ and ’sed’ and ‘frend’ then kids would learn quicker.”
and I tend to agree
http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/02signs/simplified.html
To draw an analogy, I never create pointer bugs in my code… but then again I use c# :)
michael on May 29th, 2007
No Rob, it wasn’t directed at you - I’ve never had a problem reading stuff you’ve written … Well done on your improvised talk on Monday, come off very smooth and natural!
Ian on May 30th, 2007
This spelling thing is enough to make you loose your cool.
michael on May 30th, 2007
Your pushing you’re luck, Ian :|