Apostrophe rules are scatterbrained, but I’m not sure how high they be on a list of grating flaws or kludges in English. I might not even have made them a separate list entry; they’re a subset of homophones, and many other homophones are more detrimental to clear communication. Non-phonetic spelling rules make it harder for everyone to learn to read. Irregular conjugations add unnecessary and illogical hoops to jump through before anyone can even speak without unintentionally signaling low intelligence. Hell, I used to think of I/l/1 as a programmer’s problem until I discovered that toddlers stumble on the same unnecessary ambiguity; at least programmers get to choose their own fonts.
I was about to point out that I do as well, but on thinking about it I realize that I never do this when using it as a variable. Which I suppose is to be expected.
I always write capital “I” with three lines, lower case “l” as a single straight line, and the number “1” with three lines. I was always taught to write the two letters that way, but I decided to write the number 1 that way on my own.
Apostrophe rules are scatterbrained, but I’m not sure how high they be on a list of grating flaws or kludges in English. I might not even have made them a separate list entry; they’re a subset of homophones, and many other homophones are more detrimental to clear communication. Non-phonetic spelling rules make it harder for everyone to learn to read. Irregular conjugations add unnecessary and illogical hoops to jump through before anyone can even speak without unintentionally signaling low intelligence. Hell, I used to think of I/l/1 as a programmer’s problem until I discovered that toddlers stumble on the same unnecessary ambiguity; at least programmers get to choose their own fonts.
I don’t know of anyone who actually writes an upper-case “I” as a single line.
I do.
I was about to point out that I do as well, but on thinking about it I realize that I never do this when using it as a variable. Which I suppose is to be expected.
I always write capital “I” with three lines, lower case “l” as a single straight line, and the number “1” with three lines. I was always taught to write the two letters that way, but I decided to write the number 1 that way on my own.