Well, I know in advance my comments are an alternative. First, when this thread began, I figured it was off-topic and Kirk would probably put an end to it. On another hand, as American English spelling is not a consistant science, it would seem unlikely to just memerize thousands of spellings. Sure when I was younger, Braille was nearly an only way to read, but in the late50s I was quite interested in Baseball and the Space Program, but mostly it were text books which were available. I was never a good or comfortable Braille reader. About a only time I read outloud is at our anual Pass Over Seder. I know there are both sighted-and-blind folks who are phonatical about spelling-and-punctuation. I look at especially spelling-and-moreover typing as a way to convey ideas-and-concepts. I know it drives some crazy if I use a number in the middle of a word. Growing up with Braille also teaches bad habbits in typing. For example, when I would type an amount of money, I would type symbols of "dollar sign""number sign" followed by an amount. As an unconventional, I really like having dashes separating some words, I guess because I don't really like dead-air and so a dash would symbolicly keep sound alive. In conclusion, since many of us are not always writing executive business letters, we're symply conveying opinions-and-information. Sure getting a wrong letter in an url, well, thats important. As a strictly speech listener, I try when I can to hear as little punctuation as I can. I think when I've tried spelling checkers in Pine, they were harder to navigate. Thanks for listening. Hart
