[snogglethorpe]

> Of course, the manuscript writers needed to draw the letters in a calligraphic style, which necessitated precise wrist motions. So a writing method designed for brisk mark making wouldn't have helped them.

I'm hardly an expert, but I took a calligraphy class in college, and the instructor was always getting on our case, telling us "write with your arm, not your wrist/hand"... you weren't supposed to rest your hand on the paper as one typically does when handwriting; rather, you were supposed to use arm/shoulder movements to move your hand, with your wrist kept relatively stiff.

The idea, as I understand it, was that your large arm/shoulder muscles tend to tire much less quickly, and using them makes it much easier to maintain consistent, smooth, controlled movements. Even when fresh, writing with your wrist/fingers tends to be rather different simply due to the highly restricted movement range and the smaller muscles.

[_ap]

You're right. Unfortunately, I can't change my comment because of the editing time limit.

[snogglethorpe]

Yeah, the edit time limit is often pretty annoying... [Comment before going to bed and didn't notice that typo that completely changes the meaning until the next morning? Too bad! >< ]

I guess there are reasons for it, but it'd be cool if HN, say, increased the edit time limit by 1 minute per 1 point of karma over 500 or something ...