Jay Garcia wrote:

> Pascal Chevrel wrote:
>
> > Gervase Markham wrote:
> >
> >
> >>>The page does not read like a joke. "We can all spell. Try learning -
> >>>it's a useful life skill. Really." Doesn't sound like a joke to me.
> >>>
> >>It's not a joke. That bit is deadly serious. Fifty years ago people
> >>could spell, because they couldn't offload the work on machines.
> >>Learning to spell means all your handwritten (yes, some people still do
> >>that) communications will also be understandable.
> >>
> >>Correct spelling has a purpose - a language agrees on standard spellings
> >>in its alphabet of the words for particular things or concepts in order
> >>to promote clear communication between individuals. Better spelling
> >>leads to better communication.
> >>
> >
> > Gerv,
> >
> > I find your argumentation very narrow-minded. You forget that most of the
> > people in the world speak and write more than one language. I, for one,
> > definitely need a multilingual spell checker in mozilla, just like in NS4,
> > because I write e-mails in three different languages everyday. Just like Sam,
> > I find the "We can all spell. Try learning - it's a useful life skill.
> > Really." insulting. What do you expect from non-English speaking users? To
> > have an encyclopedic knowledge of your language ? Have you ever thought that
> > most of the people need spell checkers because they write in a language which
> > is not their mother toungue ?
> >
> > Pascal
> >
> >
>
> Then why don't you use Netscape 6.2 for your email? It has a
> spell-checker. 6.2 is Mozilla 0.9.4+. Use Mozilla strictly for testing
> purposes, etc. Remember, Mozilla is not an end-user application. What
> works today may not work tomorrow or from day to day as the nightlies
> unfold, who knows.
>
> --
> Jay Garcia - Netscape Champion
> Novell MCNE-5/CNI-Networking Technologies-OSI
> UFAQ - http://www.UFAQ.org

I use Mozilla because :
- NS 6.2 is more buggy and has much less features than mozilla (tabs, labels, view
all headers, favicon, broken image icon...)
- there is no Win32 version of Beonex and the linux version is as much beta
software as mozilla is
- And, most importantly, I follow the Mozilla project, promote it and file bugs to
help as much as I can. Just like lots of other end-users.

A few observations about what you said :

I've been using Mozilla for a year now and I download nightlies very often (I have
a fast connection), I've never lost any data and Mozilla was always more stable
than NS4, NS6.x or IE5.5/6 on my machine. It may not please developpers, but there
are lots of end-users using Mozilla as their primary browser, probably more than
NS6.x users. Most of the amateur web designers I know (like me) have installed
mozilla and promote it along with W3C standards. All the professional web designers
I know (and I know many !) haven't installed it and do not plan to. They work for a
target audience which is 80% IE-15% NS4 and their main concerns are called
profitability and client deadlines. So before being scornful and rude with
end-users, I think that coders should realize that they are their main support. How
many ex-NS4 users would now be IE users if we, mozilla *users*, had not shown them
an alternative ?

More generally, I think that the problem is that some programmers show a clear
contempt for users and follow the old "users are too dumb to have a clue" rule. If
you look at the thread, you will notice that users do not complain about the lack
of spell checker but about the lack of courteasy.

Pascal


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