[LINK] Are GUI design standards no longer relevanr?

[Stilgherrian]

On 19/01/2010, at 10:23 AM, David Boxall wrote:
> Over the festive season, a relative and I were puzzling over the reasons 
> for the dominance of English, given that Chinese (in one form or 
> another) is the first spoken language of far more people.
> 
> One factor, we decided, is the complexity of the written form. 
> Pictographic writing has a virtual infinity of symbols (the largest 
> Chinese dictionaries include about 56,000 characters, but the system is 
> open-ended: there is no upper limit to the number of characters). With 
> all its faults, an alphabet is easier to learn and use than a multitude 
> of graphics.

I'd tend to add not just to learn, but also to coin new words when needed (words formed from rearranging existing, known symbols rather than having to learn new characters tow rite), and to build mechanical systems for reproduction and transmission of knowledge.

Pure speculation on my part, of course.

Stil


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