

Ask HN: Why do we capitalize letters? - jmtame

can i stop capitalizing?
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parenthesis
We do actually capitalise a lot less than was done in the past. Find some
unmodernised English writing from circa 1600, say, and you'll find lots of
capitalisation of (non-proper) nouns, for example.

The contemporary convention of capitalising the first letter of a new sentence
helps to show more clearly where sentences begin and end. Capitalising proper
names helps distinguish particular special (not necessarily animate)
individuals from things that merely have some common property. "In the times
in which we live, The Times keeps us informed of world events." "The spectator
was not actually spectating, but was reading The Spectator."

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noodle
i haven't done it in years, except in formal capacities. fewer keystrokes =
more efficiency

~~~
noodle
seriously? modded down? i wasn't kidding, i used to type with caps, but found
that i typed faster without caps, as well as felt less RSI strain on my hands.

capitalization is a linguistic construct, and in english, it doesn't has as
much of a purpose as it does in some other languages. its skippable.

~~~
alphamule
as have I, except I do capitalize the word "I", because I find that the
lowercase "i" as first person pronoun is too twee. now that jerry yang has
become the most prominent all-lower-case user, I fear that not wanting to be
associated with the stink of failure will drive me out of the practice.

