The Sanctuary

Ego => Spurious Generalities => Topic started by: splooge gook on October 21, 2014, 07:48:30 pm

Title: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: splooge gook on October 21, 2014, 07:48:30 pm
are you losing any comprehension from this not being a capitalized sentence?
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: mmmmmmmQuestions on October 21, 2014, 07:53:28 pm
so we can differentiate between John and the john
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: splooge gook on October 21, 2014, 07:54:03 pm
can you differentiate between john and the john
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: mashleshmash on October 21, 2014, 07:56:35 pm
can you even bro
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: splooge gook on October 21, 2014, 07:57:17 pm
yes i can bro
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: mmmmmmmQuestions on October 21, 2014, 08:00:45 pm
....but right now, I've got a meeting with the john....

do I have to take a serious shit?

do I have to go meet the guy that my whore is going to fuck?

am I going to meet a someone known on the streets as drug kingpin called 'the john?'
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: Idiosyncrasy on October 21, 2014, 08:01:47 pm
It helps to call attention to the start of a new thought or sentence or dignify a proper noun.
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: splooge gook on October 21, 2014, 08:32:04 pm
we need another 26 symbols to do so?
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: theKit on October 21, 2014, 08:50:08 pm
we need another 26 symbols to do so?

Seeing as there are 26 lower case letters and any new thought could start with any of those letters... Yes? Also how else are you supposed to know I'm yelling at you on the internet YOU STUPID FAGGOT before reading the entire sentence to find an exclamation point?
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: Lanny on October 21, 2014, 09:28:08 pm
Capital letters are generally redundant information but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can read text without capitalization but it's made easier by in some ways be including more information than is strictly necessary to represent the message as well as helping in cases where information is lost. Like if you miss a full stop but the following word is capitalized readers can infer you're starting a new sentence. Claude Shannon did some interesting experiments and figured that a character in written english has like ~1.3 bits of entropy and if we assume the standard set of characters is non-extended ASCII then everything you're writing is like 1-(1.3/7) ~= 84% redundant. But since it's sploo we're talking about and like every third word is IQ it's probably more like 98% redundant.
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: Lanny on October 21, 2014, 09:30:24 pm
we need another 26 symbols to do so?

Seeing as there are 26 lower case letters and any new thought could start with any of those letters... Yes? Also how else are you supposed to know I'm yelling at you on the internet YOU STUPID FAGGOT before reading the entire sentence to find an exclamation point?

I think in spanish they have a paired character for the exclamation point (an inverted exclamation point) so you can wrap a sentence in that like quotes and that way it's clear you're "yelling" the whole thing. I think it's pretty cool.
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: mashleshmash on October 21, 2014, 10:41:34 pm
d00d i don't ven undrestand thnis hread

fycj
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: mmmmmmmQuestions on October 22, 2014, 03:42:18 am
we could just put an umlaut over lower-letters meant to be taken as capitalized.


(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_rSeCvJKH5KI/S8KQjnNGcGI/AAAAAAAAASY/RLEOH857VCo/s320/Neuropol_umlaut-u.gif)
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: Soso0 on October 22, 2014, 03:54:00 am
It helps to call attention to the start of a new thought or sentence or dignify a proper noun.
periods do the job. yes i know they are used to end a sentence.
Title: Re: why does capital text even exist?
Post by: Lanny on October 22, 2014, 04:08:47 am
It helps to call attention to the start of a new thought or sentence or dignify a proper noun.
periods do the job. yes i know they are used to end a sentence.

Capital letters are generally redundant information but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You can read text without capitalization but it's made easier by in some ways be including more information than is strictly necessary to represent the message as well as helping in cases where information is lost. Like if you miss a full stop but the following word is capitalized readers can infer you're starting a new sentence. Claude Shannon did some interesting experiments and figured that a character in written english has like ~1.3 bits of entropy and if we assume the standard set of characters is non-extended ASCII then everything you're writing is like 1-(1.3/7) ~= 84% redundant. But since it's sploo we're talking about and like every third word is IQ it's probably more like 98% redundant.