Tuesday, June 9, 2009

evolution of punctuation online

http://everything2.com/title/The%2520slow%2520reversal%2520of%2520periods%2520and%2520quotation%2520marks

A trailing character within a quotation, required by grammatical tradition, could introduce unnecessary error to the data. Example:

You want to enter at the shell "gcc -cf ."

Here exists some confusion. (well, not a lot if you're really familiar with bash and gcc but bear with me) Does the trailing dot belong in the shell command? Who knows? The following is far superior.

You want to enter at the shell "gcc -cf".

D: I have preferred the period outside of the technical quotation forever.

My point is that punctuation continues to evolve.

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