Re: typestyle of punctuation

[Wendell Cochran atrypa@xxxxxxxx]

> Thu, 4 Apr 2002 12:19:48 -0500   
> Robert Holmgren  :

>> Patricia M Godfrey  on Sat, 30 Mar
2002 14:02:12 -0500

>> The general rule in publishing in
>> the US has been periods and commas inside quotation marks...

> I've never understood the rationale for this. For example, if I quote
you on the matter of "periods and commas inside", it absolutely defies
logic and violates accuracy that the last-previous comma in the present
sentence should go before the terminal quotation mark (unless of
course the comma were actually part of the quotation, which it isn't).
What's the reasoning?


For many years I've asked Inside Regardless advocates why they defied
logic, & the nearest approach to an answer proclaimed that
 ." _looked better_ than ".

Ostrobogulous piffle!

In recent decades I've been expecting the rigors of programming practice
to tilt the so-called American style toward British style in everyday
prose. If it's so, the evidence is slight, even amongst programmers.

See any tech newsgroup or mailing list, where programmers flaunt
incompetence & perversity in spelling, syntax, usage, grammar -- &
punctuation.
Most of 'em would find nothing odd in `Who wrote "War & Piece?"'

Wendell Cochran
West Seattle