Hi, It looks as though there are at least two issues here: text legibility and text readability (although there is overlap between the two).
Text legibility --------------- Text "legibility" is whether the text is easy to read in the sense of "seeing the words". This is affected by things like case of text and the font used. It is generally accepted that mixed case text is easier to read than text using only capital letters. Of the sites I've looked at, various suggestions are made as to why this is the case. Some simply say that most of what we read in everyday life is in mixed case, and so we are more used to this. Others talk about the shape of the words (all words are essentially square in upper case) and the role of ascending or descending letters. However, I recently received the following email which makes me believe that this is perhaps not true (the shape of the words in the following extract has clearly been changed) Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wodrs are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. The really fascinating thing, in my opinion, is that we can even pick up that "wodrs" in the second line is wrong (a word, not a words) Now, looking for articles on use of capitalisation and legibility, I found the following: http://www.tiresias.org/research/publications/arditi.htm You might want to read: Arditi, A. and Cho, J. (2000). Letter case and text legibility. Supplement to Perception, 29, 45. (I've not read this, but it looks promising) To a certain extent, some of what applies to natural language should also apply to computer code. If it's all in capitals, it probably will be more difficult to see the words (but from what I've read, one word in capitals doesn't cause too many problems). In computer code, it helps in terms of legibility to separate words in variable names by underscores or by capitalising the first letter of each word. However ... Text readability ---------------- Text "readability" describes the way that tabloid newspapers are easier to read than James Joyce - it is easier to extract the sense behind the words. Things like formatting, paragraphs, etc. all help to give us an idea of the structure and so help with readability. The complexity of the vocabulary is also important. Now, looking at computer programming, according to the language, there are often conventions that are used to help make the structure stand out. So, when we write constants in upper case, we are telling the reader "hey, this is a constant". So the advantage is here that this formatting helps the reader to understand the sense of the code - i.e. whilst hindering legibility to a certain extent, it aids readability. Of course, you have to be aware of these conventions for them to be useful. Hope this helps, Rebecca ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
