StudlyCaps
Encyclopedia
StudlyCaps is a variation of CamelCase
in which the individual letters in a word (or words) are capitalized and not capitalized, either at random or in some pattern.
"ThE oRigiN and SigNificaNce of thIs pRacTicE iS oBscuRe." It appears to have been popularized among adolescent users during the BBS
and early WWW
eras of online culture, as a form of rebellion against the traditional rules of capitalization
. Unlike the use of all lowercase letters, which suggests efficiency as a motivation, StudlyCaps requires additional effort to type, either holding and releasing the shift key with one hand while hunting-and-pecking, or alternately pressing one shift key or the other while touch typing
. The iNiQUITY BBS software based on Renegade
had a feature to support this automatically.
. The overt defiance of rules distinguishes it from most forms of CamelCase which, despite their defiance of traditional typographic rules for language, are noteworthy for their adherence to authority-established standards specifying which letters are to be capitalized and which are not.
CamelCase
CamelCase , also known as medial capitals, is the practice of writing compound words or phrases in which the elements are joined without spaces, with each element's initial letter capitalized within the compound and the first letter either upper or lower case—as in "LaBelle", "BackColor",...
in which the individual letters in a word (or words) are capitalized and not capitalized, either at random or in some pattern.
History
According to the Jargon FileJargon File
The Jargon File is a glossary of computer programmer slang. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Carnegie Mellon...
"ThE oRigiN and SigNificaNce of thIs pRacTicE iS oBscuRe." It appears to have been popularized among adolescent users during the BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
and early WWW
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
eras of online culture, as a form of rebellion against the traditional rules of capitalization
Capitalization
Capitalization is writing a word with its first letter as a majuscule and the remaining letters in minuscules . This of course only applies to those writing systems which have a case distinction...
. Unlike the use of all lowercase letters, which suggests efficiency as a motivation, StudlyCaps requires additional effort to type, either holding and releasing the shift key with one hand while hunting-and-pecking, or alternately pressing one shift key or the other while touch typing
Touch typing
Touch typing is typing without using the sense of sight to find the keys. Specifically, a touch typist will know their location on the keyboard through muscle memory. Touch typing typically involves placing the eight fingers in a horizontal row along the middle of the keyboard and having them...
. The iNiQUITY BBS software based on Renegade
Renegade (BBS)
Renegade is a freeware bulletin board system written for IBM PC-compatible computers running MS-DOS that gained popularity among hobbyist BBSes in the early to mid 1990s...
had a feature to support this automatically.
Use
It may perform a similar social function as the reduced legibility of the highly stylised script commonly used in graffitiGraffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
. The overt defiance of rules distinguishes it from most forms of CamelCase which, despite their defiance of traditional typographic rules for language, are noteworthy for their adherence to authority-established standards specifying which letters are to be capitalized and which are not.