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What I find most shocking is that this is not cursive at all, just print with some kind of cursive joinery.

s and z in particular look completely different in cursive, and b, f, l, k, and even h should also look quite different from this too. m and n are missing the extra arm.

Do Americans genuinely not know what cursive looks like? I understand it's been removed from their education for decades.

I do recognize however that the final result does indeed look quite close to natural print-style handwriting -- just don't call it cursive.




There is no "one cursive" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive. It looks to me that hers would be under the Italic family. I personally changed my handwriting to a similar style and find it much more legible.

Depending on the country you have studied in, you might have learned a particular style of cursive. For example, in the UK they teach joined writing https://nha-handwriting.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/woocommerc....


It's just not cursive. This is not controversial, there was a huge debate ~15 years ago when cursive instruction was removed from the curriculum in the US.


What is the point of arguing definitions in this case? It seems you think one thing. The Wikipedia article says another.

Are you claiming there is only one internally-consistent way of defining terms? Hopefully not.

Do you think that definitions exist "out there" as objective realities? Hopefully not, as they exist in your head. On what basis is the definition in your head better than Wikipedia's? Or vice versa?

Are you claiming definitions are determined by authorities? Hopefully not. What do you think the editors of dictionaries themselves have to say about that? As I understand it, they view themselves as collecting popular usage.

Does popular usage serve as the "proper" and "fixed" definition? If so, does that mean usage {1, 10, 100, 1000} years ago was wrong?

Are you making some kind of statistical claim; e.g. "most people would think that cursive is..."?

The trope of "No, Thing X is not Y, see Source S" is rather myopic. There is often no disagreement once you speak clearly about what you _mean_.


Did you read the first sentence of the Wikipedia article? It contrasts cursive with block letters.

Anyway, you're of course free to call block letters cursive. It's not the traditional meaning, and it's interesting to observe that people don't even know that anymore.


First, I refer you to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that".

Second, please recognize that my comment was based on what you wrote above: "It's just not cursive." But it seems my point didn't get across.


No, your point came across. You think every sort of handwriting is cursive, and I don't think I can help you with that :)


> No, your point came across. You think every sort of handwriting is cursive, and I don't think I can help you with that :)

No, that was not my point.

I'll try it a different way with two questions and a comment: what is the point of arguing definitions? What does it get you? If your point is communication and persuasion, pointing to a definition and asserting that it settles the issue isn't a great strategy.

And by the way, it is incorrect to claim I something like a complete relativist regarding definitions; I am not saying anything goes. For example, I said above that internal consistency matters.) Very important is a particular focusing goal other citing authority (such as effective communication) which involves 2+ parties.


Typo fixes: "And by the way, it is incorrect to claim I'm something like a complete relativist regarding definitions; I'm not saying anything goes. For example, I said above that internal consistency matters. It is important to have a particular focusing goal other than promoting one definition over another. For example, if your goal is effective communication you probably won't be tempted to say things like "It's just not cursive."


Wikipedia itself calls it "semi-cursive".


No it doesn't. The only time "semi-cursive" is ever mentioned on that page, or the subpage for it itself is when talking about Chinese calligraphy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-cursive_script


The description of "italic script", that the parent claimed was "one of the many types or cursive", explicitly says

> Italic script, also known as chancery cursive and Italic hand, is a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the Renaissance in Italy.


Various childhood experiences convinced me that adults were stupid. One was wearing a belt I didn't need, because that's what one did, and scratching my Dad's guitar. This cost me a career of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

I rejected cursive after one year, reverting to printing despite all pressures. I couldn't see any upside to cursive. It was harder to read, a concession to lazy adults with poor motor control. A few years later I won a penmanship contest.

What I want to do with these ideas is automate turning computer-generated animation into animation with a hand-drawn life, using machine learning to tune the parameters to express my tastes.

This is all connected: My brother and I were fascinated when we learned how animation worked. I then found myself deathly bored in an hour of school penmanship printing practice, so I worked on animating letter F's turning into letter G's, and so forth. The teacher left me alone until other kids asked what I was doing, and I taught them. She swiftly collected all papers, went to get a primitive projector that barely escaped incinerating our work, and praised various students' penmanship. My collaborators were trembling that they'd be chosen next. We didn't yet understand that one attempts to stop a revolution by cutting off the head.

I was stunned to realize that the ridicule didn't hurt. These experiences helped me learn to think independently as a mathematician.


The joinery, and the lack of it, are what makes cursive, cursive. Also makes the definition nebulous.


Americans genuinely do know what cursive looks like, and it's still taught to this day, source 3 kids who know how to write in cursive but weren't taught be me. Maybe broad inaccurate generalizations are the issue here, not American's cursive learnin'.


> Cursive ... is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner

So it seems like it is cursive.




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