Re: World's worst software. What's decent?

From: Chuck Harris (cf-NO-SPAM-harris_at_erols.com)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 19:32:49 -0400

Bill Sloman wrote:
> Chuck Harris <cf-NO-SPAM-harris@erols.com> wrote in message news:<esidnTvqu-fXi-TcRVn-1A@rcn.net>...

>>Where Webster and Franklin did succeed, was in making spelling more
>>uniform. They took a language where spelling varied greatly depending
>>on where you were educated, and provide a reference of American
>>spellings. These spellings were not the simple phonetic spellings that
>>they wanted to have adopted, but rather, the spellings that were commonly
>>used by Webster, Franklin, Jefferson and others. It is interesting to
>>notice that the spellings used by Jefferson in his writings exactly match
>>those in the current American English dictionaries.
>
>
> Have a look at Elizabethan spelling sometime - the modern habit of
> spelling the same word the same way every time your write it is a
> comparatively recent innovation. I'd be very surprised if Jefferson
> spelled everything exactly the same way as current American
> dictionaries do - can you post a URL for a web-site that supports this
> claim?

It is a personal observation that comes from reading a whole lot of his
personal letters, and other writings. I was very surprised to see that
he was quite consistant, and quite modern. The letters he received in
reply were all over the place with their spelling.

-Chuck

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