on content versus presentation [ was: Re: Why the FreeBSD license will not be changing ]

[Astrodog]

Dear god, this is sad.

To all of you attacking the rules of capitalization, spelling and grammar...

These rules exist to aid in allowing others to understand what you're
writing, much as style(9) exists to help make code more
understandable.
For example:

int func() {
    if (blah == 2) {
        otherfunc(blah2);
        return 0;
    }
    else {
        return 1;
    }
}

is MUCH easier to understand than:

int func() {if(blah==2){otherfunc(blah2);return 0;}else{return 1;}}

Just as "I really enjoy drinking heavily then driving like Mario
Andretti, Officer Smith" is much more understandable, and can be read
faster than, "ireallyenjoydrinkingheavilythendrivinglikemarioandrettiofficersmith"

These rules do not exist for your, personal, outgoing communication's
benefit. They exist to assist people reading what others have written.
I know of very few people who follow these rules when writing notes
for their own use. While you can elect to ignore these rules in
communication with others, doing so makes understanding things you
write more difficult. These kinds of mistakes also make ambiguous
sentences more likely to occur, as the building blocks of the sentence
are not recognizable by others.

Needless to say, fluency with these rules will not be consistent
across a large group of people. However, the fact that some people do
not know the rules as well as others, is no excuse for not working to
make your material easier to understand. Soccer players cannot pick up
the ball and run with it... even if a majority of people are not aware
of the rule. If they elect to do so, they will encounter problems. I
do not begrudge someone learning English for not understanding these
rules or someone with a disability that prevents their use, and
mistakes happen, though I certainly frown upon someone reveling in
doing it incorrectly.

In as far as Jonathan's point of, "not everybody read writes presents
american english in teh way 'some' americans read write and present
thier version of english."... The various rules of American English
are not something that individuals in the population are able to alter
for personal reasons. The fact that someone is unable, for whatever
reason, to follow the rules of the language doesn't change the fact
that they are using the language incorrectly, nor does that incorrect
usage necessarily reflect negatively upon the thoughts that person is
attempting to express.

--- Harrison