English?

[Wetzel]

That's an older language, like FORTRAN or PDP-10 assembly, and its popularity among programmers has been declining for some time now. English was used exensively on the internet prior to the early ninties. It then began losing ground when America Online and Prodigy began pushing a then-proprietary subset of the language. While old-timers claimed that the new code wasn't as readable or as maintainable as traditional ANSI English, its loose syntax and less complex data structures quickly gained the affection of the less technically-inclined masses who now constitute a majority of Internet users.

Though standards-compliant, well-commented English is unpopular among today's programmers, the old language is still popular in university settings, where it is used alongside other esoteric languages like FORTRAN and LISP. It also remains popular in Europe, where it is still commonly taught in schools and in universities across the continent.

~Some guy named 'Steve'


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~
*NUDGENUDGE*

[srjjs]

As far as I can tell, this is a joke about the misuse of English on the Internet...
Am I right, or am I just going crazy?

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by srjjs
As far as I can tell, this is a joke about the misuse of English on the Internet...
Am I right, or am I just going crazy?

I wouldn't call it a joke. How about "a well deserved, well made, pointedly sarcastic commentary"?

[srjjs]

Trust me, these boards are actually really good as far as English goes. In chatrooms and on some less civilized boards, many posts are completetely unintelligible.

[evulish]

Yeah. Go and sit on a channel on the DALnet for a night and see if you think our English is bad (For being a teen-based forums, this place has decent grammar. Most other ones seem like a web-based chicken scratch )

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by srjjs
Trust me, these boards are actually really good as far as English goes. In chatrooms and on some less civilized boards, many posts are completetely unintelligible.

Originally posted by evulish
Yeah. Go and sit on a channel on the DALnet for a night and see if you think our English is bad (For being a teen-based forums, this place has decent grammar. Most other ones seem like a web-based chicken scratch )

Actually, I am encouraged by the number of posters here on CD who do wield the English language effectively. I think you will have to admit though, that there are far too many (especially elsewhere on the 'net) who either can't, or don't care enough to express themselves clearly.

[Matt Attallah]

Originally posted by gwross
Actually, I am encouraged by the number of posters here on CD who do wield the English language effectively. I think you will have to admit though, that there are far too many (especially elsewhere on the 'net) who either can't, or don't care enough to express themselves clearly.

And that is why we have "Flame Wars" thanks to people that can't explain their selfs clearly, or don't care. CD ROCKS! (WOO!) for their exemplary English skills! 1337!

But when you are talking to 10 people at once on AIM or a chat room, you need to cut down some of the key strokes, so I see why it was made, but it's being used too widely for it's purpose...