Re: [emergency-comment] Bad Examples in CAP Spec (UPPERCASE is bad human factors)

[R. Allen Wyke <emergency-tc@earthlink.net>]

I will start to compile a list of these public comments for the next 
meeting. In the meantime, here is one out for discussion to the group.

My two cents are that while it not using caps in our examples avoids 
questions, technically XML documents are only carriers of data - not 
formatted data. You would use a formatting "language", which is not 
CAP, of some sort to actually define how it was to be displayed to 
humans if needed. In other words, all caps, no caps, mixed case, title 
case, etc. does not matter technically, as no one should be using 
straight CAP text to display in their applications (unless you just 
need a quick and dirty implementation).

Allen

On Mar 2, 2004, at 10:17 PM, Bob Wyman wrote:

> It is unfortunate that the examples in the CAP spec use all uppercase
> letters in human readable text. These examples "teach" bad human
> factors.
>
> Numerous studies have been done of reading comprehension for all
> upper-case and mixed-case text. Every study has shown that
> comprehension and speed of reading are lower for texts that are
> written in all upper-case.
>
> Since it is vital that human-readable text in the kind of messages
> that CAP will be used for is read quickly and without error, it seems
> to me that there should be a "Best Practice" note that strongly
> discourages the use of all upper-case human readable text.
> Additionally, I suggest that any examples of CAP mesages should avoid
> violating this "Best Practice."
>
>         bob wyman
>         CTO, PubSub Concepts, Inc.
>         http://pubsub.com/