Richard wrote:
> Here is a possible explanation. To start I am only reporting, not judging.
> Originally in computerized genealogy the only game in town was the LDS.
> When they decided, when creating the original
> pre cursor to the IGI, they standardized the desired input for
> themselves, which was people names ALL CAPS. It may come
> from the real old days when computers only had CAPS. In the ensueing
> decades, more non LDS were joining the group of
> computer genealogists. All the older programs defaulted to ALL CAPS.
> Then the IGI went to SURNAME CAPS, Given Name
> First Letter. Now most programs, if not all, give various choices as the
> what you want, not what you get.
> YOU CAN CHANGE TO KEEP WHAT I PRINT. I did.
> Rich in LA CA
I believe the source of ALLCAPS has it's origins in Genealogy,
not in limitations of early computer programs. My understanding
is that ALLCAPS was used by early genealogists when typing
up reports to make it easy to scan such reports and find names.
This was from the era of using typewriters when bold and italic
fonts were not available without changing typewriters (or on an
IBM Selectric changing the ball) Note how easily your eye
picks out the ALLCAPS parts of the above text. Now imagine
that the convention was to do names and only names as ALLCAPS.
Some folks got used to that and many folks think that even with
modern wordprocessors and the abilty to change fonts and font styles,
writing names in ALLCAPS still makes them stand out more than
the various font alternatives.
jr
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