I once read an appraisal of a work colleague's performance. The manager (ex-forces) had written, "I hope X never goes to prison. He simply cannot complete a sentence."

I have myself passed memoranda around an IT department, asking people not to use text-speak or bloglish in e-mails or other communications. "pls" might mean "please", or the author may have meant a multimedia playlist format, or a Programmable Logic Sequencer. I shouldn't have to submit a simple e-mail to detailed analysis to find out what the author is thinking even in general terms.

Information Technology is regrettably a poor place for clarity of verbal or written communications. I have a text book on the C++ computer language by Bjarne Stroustrup; after trying to read it, I filed it on my shelves alongside James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake", as being equally obscure.

Bert, a misplaced period ? I once submitted a shoebox full of punch cards as a COBOL program. The first one said "Idetification Division". Spot the deliberate error. The compiler certainly did; the error printout was two inches thick, and of course quite useless, since every single word was described as "Unrecognisable input; program structure not defined".