Talk:Boustrophedon

message: Are you sure that the letters themselves are supposed to be drawn backwards? I think they are supposed to be in backwards order, but the individual shapes stay the same. (I am referring to the image.)
I read a lot on boustrophedon writing in the past but when it came to doing an illustration for this article I did not remember if the shape of the letters was supposed to be reversed (as in the image I finally did) or in normal configuration, as you suggest.  I looked it up on the Web, and all the examples I could find at the time showed the letter images inverded on the lines where the writing was right to left.  A few minutes ago I looked it up again and once more, all the examples (ancient as well as modern) I could see in that image search, had imverted letter images on the lines that run right to left.AlainV 02:57, 2004 Apr 15 (UTC)
I've always seen it with reversed letters, just as you've made it. Doops 11:00, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: The converter linked to at the bottom does not work. Instead of reversing every other line, it just reverses the entire text so you read right to left bottom to top, plus the letters are still in standard orientation. The 'advanced' version is even worse, just doing the same by words instead of letters.2601:D:3880:501E:83D:2B7:2D:CA10 (talk) 01:54, 8 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments

message: does boustrophedon format have to alternate over lines? I ask as I have just found a reference to the C 
programming language where the type declarations are described as being boustrophonic but in fact these are all
on the same line: ie starting from the identifier you alternate left to right with right to left reading, is my understanding that this is not true boustrophedon format correct?
cheers 
193.62.199.25 16:32, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I edited your post to have a heading. This is a interesting remark, but I'm afraid you are correct saying that boustrophedon is alternating between lines. → Aethralis 07:37, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  C language 

message: === Kannada <--> Kannadi <---> English ===
It is quite interseting to note that many scripts appear to be flipped or turned at an angle to get other script and in many cases they make sense. For example, the Kannada 'A' appears like flipped english A top-down. Similarly the 'B' appears as to have been rotated and changed. Many letters also appear similar(after removing the top hat called "Talakattu") or flipped and twisted like D,E,F,G,H,I,K,L,M,N,R,U,W,Z, etc. Also note in Kannada the word "kannadi" means mirror, that may explain why the letters appears like that. Any thoughts?! 27.57.169.28 (talk) 11:34, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Have scripts evolved in this manner? 

message: It is quite interseting to note that many scripts appear to be flipped or turned at an angle to get other script and in many cases they make sense. For example, the Kannada 'A' appears like flipped english A top-down. Similarly the 'B' appears as to have been rotated and changed. Many letters also appear similar(after removing the top hat called "Talakattu") or flipped and twisted like D,E,F,G,H,I,K,L,M,N,R,U,W,Z, etc. Also note in Kannada the word "kannadi" means mirror, that may explain why the letters appears like that. Any thoughts?! 27.57.169.28 (talk) 11:34, 30 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Kannada <--> Kannadi <---> English 

message: Perhaps Speed Reading could be added to See also list. The talk page there discusses some examples like (or akin) boustrophedon.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by JohnsonL623 (talk • contribs) 23:30, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Speed reading 

message: ...includes comment on UK postmen using the term Boustrophedon to describe door numberings which proceed serially down one side and then back up the other side in the opposite direction (or, around a court-yard in this fashion) "citation needed". I can confirm that there are streets in the UK that are numbered in this way, however, having personally been a postman in Northern England, I can say for certain that I never heard this terminology used to describe this phenomenon. Perhaps the sentence should be reworked, to focus on the numbering phenomenon rather than the suggestion that mostly working-class, state educated postmen (unlikely to have been educated in ancient Greek) will know of this obscure terminology?
Matthew Slyman (talk) 05:10, 28 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Other Examples 

message: Is there any way to mark a paragraph in Wikipedia in boustrephedon?  This would be helpful in ancient manuscripts and alphabets like Runes, Old Italic, etc.  Even if I try marking runes as RTL through HTML, they are still facing towards the right, and right-aligned.  They should face left on the second line, right the third, and so on.  Boustrephedon shouldn't be left/right aligned on opposite sides of the page, they should be directly underneath one another.--JJohnson1701 (talk) 22:36, 4 March 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: If you have a citation that shows that runes were written boustrophedonically, then you should add it to this article. Kortoso (talk) 19:06, 11 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Writing wiki text in this manner 

message: ᛁᚳ᛬ᚻᚫᚠᛞᛖ᛬ᚻᛁᛗ᛬ᛗᛁᛞ᛬ᛗᛁᚷ᛬ᛗᛁᛞᚾᛁᛗᛖᚾ᛬ᛋᚳᚢlᛖᚾ᛫
ᚻᚢ᛬ᛚᚪᛝᛖ᛬ᚻᚪᚠᛥ᛬ᚦᚢ᛬ᚻᛁᛖᚱ᛬ᚸᛖᚹᚢᚾᛞᛰ᛬ᛋᛁᛖᚻᛥ᛬‏ ‏
ᚦᚢ᛬ᛋᚳᛖᛰᛁᚳ᛬ᚻᚪᛒᛖ᛬ᚦᚱᛇ᛬ᛞᛟᚻᛏᛖᚱ᛬⁊᛬ᚦᚱᛁᛖ᛬ᛋᚩᚾᛖ᛫
ᚦᛖ᛬ᛒᚱᚢᚾᚠᚪᛉᛖ᛬ᚹᛖᚱᚱ᛬ᚹᛁᛋtᛖᛧᚦᚪᛏ᛬ᚻᛖ᛬ᚪᚾ᛬ᚾᛁᚹᛖ᛬
ᚪᚢᛏᚩ᛬ᚠᛁᚾᛞᛖᚾ᛬ᚦᛟᚱᚠᛏᛖ᛫
: If you have a citation that shows that runes were written boustrophedonically, then you should add it to this article. Kortoso (talk) 19:06, 11 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Example of forced LTR/RTL boustrephedon

message: The first paragraph of the Explanation section was this:
:Many ancient scripts, such as Safaitic and Sabaean, were frequently or typically written boustrophedonically, but in Greek it is found most commonly on [prehistoric no, by definition, writing cannot be prehistoric (yes it can, witness 'Linear A')] and archaic inscriptions, becoming less and less popular throughout the Hellenistic period.
Since disputes like this belong on the Talk page rather than in the article itself, I changed the paragraph to read:
:Many ancient scripts, such as Safaitic and Sabaean, were frequently or typically written boustrophedonically, but in Greek it is found most commonly in archaic inscriptions, becoming less and less popular throughout the Hellenistic period.
I do not know enough about this subject to have an informed opinion of which editor is correct; I just wanted to pull the discussion to the talk page. 
Raran75 (talk) 15:55, 11 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Prehistoric Writing Dispute 

message: Does anyone know if braille is sometimes set in boustrophedon?
This article briefly claims it is, but I can't find much on the internet which also says so.
Davidmerfield (talk) 02:03, 14 November 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Braille 

message: This article doesn't make me clear as to why anyone would write this way. It really boggles my mind when earlier today i had been berated for using sub-optimal fonts for my text, but that aside. If it's just a manner of doing something, as per culture, alrighty then.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.169.204.165 (talk) 21:30, 3 March 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: At a time when most literate people were slow readers and slow writers, it was less effort in a way to start one line right where the previous line left off... AnonMoos (talk) 21:33, 14 April 2017 (UTC)

text: The benefit is most obvious in a wall inscription with very long lines, lines that can span several feet. Both the mason and the reader can walk along the wall as the text proceeds, and when a new line starts, there is no need to go all the way back to the beginning just for the new line; instead, you walk slowly back as you either create or read the new line. Especially in ancient times, people weren't able to read (skim) quickly and quietly, instead they would typically trace the inscription with their fingers and sound out every character, syllable or word. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 22:31, 29 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Just a plain, "Why?" 

message: I would have expected a link to space-filling curves: Space-filling_curve. It seems to me like boustrophedon is a way to fill flat sides of objects with writing in the same way that space-filling curves fill a mathematical plane.  Okay, five minutes of Googling reveals a bunch of mathematics papers, but the central research would be more archaeological or linguistic. (And I have no luck finding papers like that...)104.228.53.166 (talk) 12:02, 23 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Boustrophedon as a type of Space-Filling Curve 

message: The Snakes and Ladders article includes a link to this one and seems to be a good and well known example that could be used here? JezGrove (talk) 23:20, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Snakes and Ladders example