At 07:55 AM 8/8/06, Ronald Hands, VE3SP, wrote:
w8au@sssnet.com wrote:
>
> Anyone familiar with WU telegrams, Military messages, AP and UPI
> teletype news, etc knows that they were all done in CAPS. Saved
> using the "shift" key, and lower case was not necessary for
message content.
>
This was done because they were working with primitive technology, not
because of any inherent virtue in all-caps messaging.
Militarily speaking, all branches had standard typewriters and for
general admin purposes they used upper and lower case, BUT not the
communications branches. They knew the value of brevity and efficiency
and used all caps machines.
5-level baudot code was used for 50+ years not because it was
primitive, but because it was sufficient for the job. To use 8-level
ASCII just added to the time required to transfer the same info, and
was only required when teleprinters were tied to computers. (and
that didn't last long)
Any time saved by not using the shift key at the AP office was lost
many times over at newspaper copy desks where editors had to laboriously
mark each of the capitals before sending the stories for typesetting. I
know; I was one of those long-suffering copy editors.
My reference to AP/UPI was to broadcasting news. Rip & Read
newscasters did not suffer from not having lower case. You have a
good point, but it references only a tiny part of the whole
communications picture.
Having said that, no doubt YOU were very good at your job, and having
that task added to your normal editing routine was something you
probably took in stride. That's why they paid you top dollar. :-)
Newspapers long ago discovered that all-caps headlines were hard to
read.
Headlines? All headlines were/are caps... to call attention to an
article. Right?
As far as I know, they've all abandoned that style. Internet
users should follow suit.
I'm sure newsdesks no longer get info via TTY. It obviously comes in
file format for direct insertion into electronic page setups.
But, are we Internet Operators, or Radio Communications
specialists? Take your pick. To me, the internet is just a helpful
tool to facilitate
our primary concern: communications between likeminded radio
folks. And an all-caps posting should not startle such individuals.
(My apologies for this thread taking on a life of it's own. I'm QNX
or QRT. Back to the Orion wars...) :-)
Perry w8au
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