Re^2: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why?

The more intersting question is why you think that's strange, given that you aren't using your own name. I use my name just about everywhere (that lets me) instead of a "screen name", and yet I'm the one who's made the odd choice. :)

That is simple. You arn't using your real name, but it looks like it is. It looks like a first name, initial, last name and that is why people find your capitalization odd. Yes you did indeed make the odd choice because you didn't pick a "screen name" AND you didn't use your real name, you've instead used some congolmeration of both. Don't take odd as a bad thing, simply means you didn't follow any previous convention and so people are going to occasionaly wonder why you would do something like that.

Why not ask chromatic why he does his name that way? He doesn't even have a good rationalization for his :), as he says when we were both asked that question at our book signings at the Portland Powells (which Chris Dawson recorded for a podcast).

Same simple answer, his doesn't look like a proper name that should be capitalized, yours does. BTW it is realy a sign of respect to capitalize a persons name, so asking why we can't is like asking "why can't we respect your proper name?" The answer appears to be "it isn't a proper name, it just looks like one."

___________
Eric Hodges

Comment on Re^2: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why?

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Re^3: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why? by merlyn (Sage) on May 15, 2006 at 16:37 UTC
BTW it is realy a sign of respect to capitalize a persons name No, it's really a sign of respect to be called as you wish to be called, and not force your standards on others. For example, I go by "Randal" only. Never "Randy". When someone addresses me as "Randy", hoping it will make me feel more comfortable because they're using a familiar name instead of a formal name, it actually makes me more uncomfortable, because it shows they don't really pay attention to what I consider important. It's about respect, not about convention. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re^4: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why? by eric256 (Parson) on May 15, 2006 at 18:04 UTC
When you don't know someone well enough to konw that they like Randal better than Randy the proper and respectful way to address them is by there given name. I should have said "If a person doesn't know you then the way that they address you respectfully is by capitalizing your name." ___________ Eric Hodges	[reply]
Re^5: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why? by merlyn (Sage) on May 15, 2006 at 23:10 UTC
OK, you're clearly forgiven if you had never seen `brian`'s name in print. But the question here was about using the name having already seen it, I presume. Your answer is more like "if I don't know his name, I guess I'll call him Randal". That doesn't make much sense. -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.	[reply]
Re^6: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why? by eric256 (Parson) on May 16, 2006 at 20:52 UTC
Re^3: [Culture] brian d foy name is allways lower case: why? by swampyankee (Parson) on May 15, 2006 at 18:10 UTC
Capitalization of a person's name is common in most (all?) European languages, although there are some names (I'm thinking of ffolkes; see http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SHOW&db=freer&recno=31002) which are not properly capitalized (in this particular name, I believe "ff" is a ligature; I could not find its HTML entity) Transliterating names gets into an entirely new form of messiness; I've seen at least 4 common transliterations of (Russian rocket pioneer) Tsiolovsky. Of course, I've got a fairly simple, six letter, English surname that most people can't spell. After I've written it down for them. emc "Being forced to write comments actually improves code, because it is easier to fix a crock than to explain it. " —G. Steele	[reply]


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