Re: XML.COM: How I Learned to Love daBomb

[Rick Jelliffe <ricko@allette.com.au>]

 From: "Dave Winer" <dave@userland.com>
 
> Yeah people really do get it wrong.
> 
> Like me. ;->
> 
> In fact, I've tried it with at least a hundred people and the only one to
> get it right was my uncle.
> 
> Everyone else missed three of the F's.
 
I wonder if it is related to the well-known "doubles" phenemenon which is where a
a "the" or an "a" (or any other word) at the end of a line is repeated by the typist at the 
the start of the next line. This kind of thing is often very difficult to spot.

One solution is the "vi" convention of writing one phrase per line (because
the "vi" editor has great line-selection and -moving operations).  Another is
explicit double-checking (e.g. as in spell-checkers or grammar checkers.)
It is not a matter of laziness (e.g., just learning to check): it is something humans
require when they are trying to enter text.  

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe