Subject: Re: less parentheses --> fewer parentheses From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: 2000/08/30 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3176646396201945@naggum.net> * ds26@goldshoe.gte.com (Dorai Sitaram) | With -ise there are fewer (!) exceptions to keep track of and they | are all monosyllables I think: size, prize, and may that's all. Not at all. "Advertize" is a chiefly British variant of "advertise", as long as you mention that particular word. | -ize requires you to remember a lot more exceptions: People don't _remember_ exceptions or even spelling. The extensive research on dyslexia has shown that it was a huge mistake to teach children to spell by stressing the individual letters and sounds of words and then to teach them "rules", only to break them in ways that cannot even be predicted. There are no _rules_, as such. If you have to think in rule terms, you have already lost the chance of being good at the language in question. That's also why children as a rule (!) learn languages much better than adults: They have not yet developed the stupid idea that (preconceived) rules should take precedence over individual experiences that give rise to one's own rules and abstractions. #:Erik -- If this is not what you expected, please alter your expectations.