Re: XPL question: VA$DL

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Holmgren wrote:
TABLE VARIABLES defines it as "DeFauLt File Location". As in ...
{drum roll} ... "DFL". Mnemonics, remember?
Well, that wasn't the problem, which Carl solved. But "default file
location"--though it would no doubt be perfectly clear in French,
German, or Latin--is hopelessly ambiguous in English: the location of
the default file or the default location of [some] file? Likewise this,
which I once came across while copy-editing an encyclopedia article:

"a calibrated tungsten filament lamp"
Copy editor's query: Is this a lamp with a filament of calibrated
tungsten? (If so, write, "a calibrated-tungstenfilament lamp.")
Or a filament lamp (whatever that is) made of tungsten and calibrated?
(If so, write, "a calibrated, tungsten filament-lamp.") Or a filament
lamp (whatever that is) made of calibrated tungsten? (If so, write, "a
calibrated-tungsten filament-lamp.") Or a calibrated lamp with a
tungsten filament? (If so, write, "a calibrated, tungsten-filament
lamp.") The subject editor was NOT amused.

Sorry, couldn't resist.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx