Great Runes
Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic operating systems still
emit these.
See also runes, smash case, fold case.
Decades ago, back in the days when it was the sole supplier of long-distance
hardcopy transmittal devices, the Teletype Corporation was faced with a major
design choice. To shorten code lengths and cut complexity in the printing
mechanism, it had been decided that teletypes would use a monocase font, either
ALL UPPER or all lower. The Question Of The Day was therefore, which one to
choose. A study was conducted on readability under various conditions of bad
ribbon, worn print hammers, etc. Lowercase won; it is less dense and has more
distinctive letterforms, and is thus much easier to read both under ideal
conditions and when the letters are mangled or partly obscured. The results were
filtered up through management. The chairman of Teletype killed the proposal
because it failed one incredibly important criterion:
"It would be impossible to spell the name of the Deity
correctly."
In this way (or so, at least, hacker folklore has it) superstition
triumphed over utility. Teletypes were the major
input devices on most early computers, and terminal
manufacturers looking for corners to cut naturally
followed suit until well into the 1970s. Thus, that
one bad call stuck us with Great Runes for thirty
years.
(1994-12-02)
Nearby terms:
greatest common divisor « greatest lower bound «
Great Renaming « Great Runes » Great Worm »
greek » greeking
|
