Re:Recurrent Net Dreams Up Fake Chinese Characters in Vector...
by emmett on Tuesday December 29, 2015 @02:10AM
(#10805645)
Of course it's prescriptive and there are regional differences. As you say, it's just like spelling. "Colour" still looks wrong to me. Just like a different stroke order looks wrong to a native reader. The point is the differences are visible to the reader, it's not just an arbitrary set of rules for writers. The reader can tell if you're following the rules or not.
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Re:Recurrent Net Dreams Up Fake Chinese Characters in Vector...
by timr on Tuesday December 29, 2015 @03:06PM
(#10808747)
I think you're right that there are certain characters where drawing it the "correct" way leads to a better result, and that there's a reason for the rules (i.e. that the rules are rationally derived). Using the correct order is also probably faster. I think the spelling metaphor is a good one.
I doubt your last claim in the general case, and I think the GP comment in particular is taking things too far -- there's no way that the average Japanese reader is going to be able to tell the stroke order used to write ぉ (in handwriting scenarios, not calligraphy), so long as you don't mess up the form of the thing.