Spellcheckers

[Peter Wales]

At 08:59 AM 2/6/96 +0000, diy_efi at coulomb.eng.ohio-state.edu wrote:

>> No, and that was the reason for the comment. Working my way through all of
>> the spelling errors became such hard work that I gave up and went onto the
>> next posting.<snip>
>
>Funny, most people figures it out quite well.

It never ceases to amaze me how you guys all know what everyone else is
doing. Must be telepathy or something.


>
>> Therefore, if I had been able to contribute anything to the
>> reply, I wouldn't have, because it would have been too much like hard work.
><snip>
>But you seem to treat the list as just that -work. I think most of 
>are here becaure we are interested or *enjoy* it. 

I think I'm getting flamed for the sake of it here.

If you have a question, don't you think it makes sense to present your
question neatly written with no spelling errors. That way those who can
offer the answers will not have to try and decipher your laziness and do the
spelling for you.

Please feel free to disagree with me and continue to type garbage to the
list. My reaction when I read it is that if the poster can't be bothered to
pose the question properly, why should I waste my time answering it
properly. It all depends upon whether you are a giver or a taker in this
world I suppose.

>Your business side 
>is showing. Be careful you don't let Superchips go to your head 
>-Cyberspace will trash you if you do.

Too late, it has already gone to my head, and tried to trash me as well, but
fortunately it failed.


>
>> This is why there are spell checkers, so that simple errors can be
>> eliminated by the computer. Poor English is a different story, and my French
>> would be a lot worse than his English, but I would try and run it through a
>> spell checker to get some sort of chance of the best possible responses to
>> my questions. 
>
>Agreed. He could have done that. I could do that and eliminate my 
>typos -but what a pain. Imagine if you had to spell-chek all your 
>posts....adding all those tech. terms to the dictionary etc...


So everyone else has to do it for him? Sounds like he didn't need the answer
to the question very badly.

> 
>> If the guy didn't speak English then the grammar and text content would be
>> very different and then everything would be excusable.
>
>I don't get it. Are you implying that if he had been *completely* 
>incoherent, that it would be Ok; but that since he *almost* had it 
>right, that its not ? <poking you> -"are you for real ?" 
>

Look at the address and the place of employment. If the questioner had been
from a non English speaking country and had made an effort to write the
question in English, then it would have been obvious he didn't speak
English, and deserved a lot of credit for trying. This post was simply the
result of bashing it out on the keyboard and not checking it before posting.
How do I know? I've done it myself and been embarrassed about it when I've
seen it on the screen.


>> > How about some slack ?
> 
>> Ok,you answer the question, I'm off to the next posting
>
>Hurry... you have 27 more to do before lunch! >;-o


I'm going as fast as I can.



If I were to pose a question on this list, I would take the time to think
out exactly what it is I want to know, phrase the question carefully to
screen out the answers and then check the grammar and spelling before I post
it. After all, the people who reply are under no obligation to help me out
and so I am going to make it as easy for them as possible. As a corollary,
if I make it difficult to understand the question, why should anyone bother
to unravel the mystery I have made, just so they can do something for me?

Think about it.



Peter Wales
President Superchips Inc Florida
Chairman Superchips Ltd Buckingham     "Timing is everything"
Superchips home page with all the answers  http://www.superchips.com