Aesquire.237 net.followup utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!esquire!psl Tue Mar 16 00:50:33 1982 grammar The inability of computer programmers to spell has long been a topic of discussion. I've never heard a satisfying explanation for this phenomenon. I don't find it annoying except when the meaning of a message is either badly obscured or lost completely. Oh, I guess I also get a little excited over "kernal" and a few others that appear so often that they may replace the perfectly usable original. I agree that communication would be more pleasant if I didn't have to sound each word out to discover what the writer intended (sorry, aps) but I'm not sure what we can do to improve other's spelling; in spoken communication I've already managed to make an enemy or two by suggesting that "fewer" be used in place of "less" (e.g. "Lissen four- eyes, you keep that up and you're gonna have less teeth", "Don't you mean `fewer'?", "CRUNCH!"). Perhaps a newsgroup "net.misspell" to which people could contribute their favorite misspelled words... Name withheld by request ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.