Re: maggelish spelling reform (wasRe: english spelling reform)

En réponse à Tristan <kesuari@...>:

> >
> Are you sure? I'm 99% positive you're supposed to cite paper sizes
> length by width...
>
Pretty sure yes. When I still lived in Paris I went often to a special paper
store (because of my "job" at the school's newspaper).

> >
> You presumably never saw the paper used in primary school in Australia
> when learning how to write, then. Always landscape (and ruled in
> thirds... i.e. one solid line, two dotted lines, one solid line, two
> dotted lines etc., with the solid line being the baseline, the first
> dotted line above that being the x-height, and the second being the
> ascender height).
>
What a strange kind of paper! In France we learn to write on portrait paper
(usually A5 size notebooks) lined in a very special way:
- A grid of 8x8mm squares in blue "thick" (not very thick but thicker than the
other lines) lines. This grid doesn't make the whole page. There is a left
margin delimited by a red very thick line, at about 3 centimeters from the left
side of the paper, as well as a top and bottom margins (about two and a half
and 1 and a half centimeter wide respectively). Only the horizontal lines
continue on the left margin, and only the vertical lines on the top and bottom
margins. There is no right margin (the grid carries on until the paper limit).
- A set of horizontal thin blue lines, separated by 2mm. Thus there are always
3 thin lines in each square. The first lines at the top margin are 3 thin and
one thick. The last lines at the bottom margin are one thick and two thin.

The horizontal thick lines are the baselines. The first thin line over is for
the x-height, the second for the t-height and the third for the l-height (yes,
in French we learn to write letters with two different ascender heights. The t-
height is only for t and d, and also to position accents. All other letters
with ascenders use the l-height, which is because we always write them with
loops. Capital letters also use the l-height). Descenders always go down two
thin lines. So the longest letter, f, as an ascender of 6mm and a descender of
4mm on this kind of paper. That's also why the first baseline has three thin
lines over, while the last has two thin lines under. And we are not allowed to
write in the left margin (it is there for the teacher to give comments).

I still have a lot of this kind of paper at home (in A4 form) since it's the
normal paper used for education. But I don't use it that often anymore (my
handwriting has changed too much and doesn't fit this very restrictive kind of
paper anymore).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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