Great Runes

Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic

operating systems still emit these.

See also runes, smash case, fold case.

Decades ago, back in the days when it was the sole supplier of

long-distance hardcopy transmittal devices, the Teletype

Corporation was faced with a major design choice. To shorten

code lengths and cut complexity in the printing mechanism, it

had been decided that teletypes would use a monocase font,

either ALL UPPER or all lower. The Question Of The Day was

therefore, which one to choose. A study was conducted on

readability under various conditions of bad ribbon, worn print

hammers, etc. Lowercase won; it is less dense and has more

distinctive letterforms, and is thus much easier to read both

under ideal conditions and when the letters are mangled or

partly obscured. The results were filtered up through

management. The chairman of Teletype killed the proposal

because it failed one incredibly important criterion:

"It would be impossible to spell the name of the Deity

correctly."

In this way (or so, at least, hacker folklore has it)

superstition triumphed over utility. Teletypes were the major

input devices on most early computers, and terminal

manufacturers looking for corners to cut naturally followed

suit until well into the 1970s. Thus, that one bad call stuck

us with Great Runes for thirty years.

(1994-12-02)