Ask HN: Why do we capitalize letters?

2 points·jmtame··4 comments

can i stop capitalizing?

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."

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

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.

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.

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