All this discussion makes me want to go searching for Turabian. I also
remember of very nice little manual -The Little, Brown Handbook. I also
have a Navy manual of style somewhere.
On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> Hey! That's <drivel> not <dribble> you're meaning, isn't it?
>
> When I was a student, the "bible" was Campbell's Form and Style in Thesis
> Writing. I may actually still have my original copy.
>
> Dick
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Lawrence Walker" <lgwalker_at_mts.net>
> To: "Ethan Dicks" <erd_6502_at_yahoo.com>; <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 6:57 PM
> Subject: Re: Language and English
>
>
> > I would doubt, altho I've been pleasantly surprised at the depth of
> knowledge
> > of the participants on this list, if many are acquainted to the "writers
> bible",
> > "The Elements of Style" by Stronk and White. The title gives the clue. These
> > are sugestions not rules. Fred is saying that typography did lay down a set
> > of rules to be followed if you were going to print and that this had little
> to do
> > with grammar. eg: 2 spaces after an end of sentence.
> >
> > Lawrence
> >
> > Damn !! I can't believe I'm a willing contributor to this OT dribble.
> Possibly
> > because it's as comfortable as a favorite BBS. Maybe we should set up
> > another mail-list "classiccomp.dribble" and hope it doesn't suffer the fate
> of
> > the short-lived "discoveries on E-bay" one which rose out of a flame-war. At
> > least it would cut down the list msgs. to reasonable proportions. From my
> > point of view I could live with a split between micro and mini as I tend to
> > automatically delete anything with DEC (and not appended with Rainbow),
> > VAX, or VMS. Tho at times I'm able to actually able to understand what is
> > being talked about. I know !!! You'se guys are just setting me up to be a
> mini
> > collector. You have no more room for your own passion and you just want to
> > spread the disease. LOL.
> >
> > Lawrence
> >
> > >
> > > --- "r. 'bear' stricklin" <red_at_bears.org> wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Stan Barr wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > It's one of the syntax elements of standard written English...
> > > >
> > > > These are all _typesetting_ rules, and not so much grammar rules.
> > >
> > > It's all part of syntax and style, not grammar as you say. How many
> > > people on this list ever turned in a paper where the teacher/professor
> > > insisted on strict adherence to "Strunk and White"?
> > >
> > > > Many early typewriters, in an attempt to reduce mechanical complexity to
> > > > the utmost, even lack differentiated type for the numerals '1' and '0'
> > > > as either can be suitably approximated in typewritten documents by the
> > > > lowercase letter 'l' and the uppercase letter 'O', respectively.
> > >
> > > On Topic: my mother's IBM Selectric type balls do not all contain a
> > > different facet for "1" (one) and "l" (ell). She had a 2"x4" plastic
> > > clip-on key guide for some type balls. ISTR that if you pressed the
> > > "1" key, you got some sort of bracket with the Courier ball installed.
> > >
> > > > Even the American English "rule" of placing all punctuation inside
> > > > quotation marks is a _typographical convention_ that stems from the
> early days
> > > > of movable type, when the period and comma were the most fragile pieces
> of
> > > > type and were prone to breaking off in the press.
> > >
> > > > Example:
> > > >
> > > > At the SCM prompt, type, "SHOW BOOT."
> > > >
> > > > At the SCM prompt, type, "SHOW BOOT".
> > > >
> > > > Which one is correct?
> > >
> > > This exact convention is discussed in "The New Hacker's Dictionary". It
> > > mentions that American English convention is to put punctuation inside
> > > the quotation marks (but does not give any explanation), and that
> > > Hacker usage prefers things in quotes to be the literal thing you type
> > > at the computer. I tend toward the modern usage, but I _do_ know the
> > > difference.
> > >
> > > -ethan
> > >
> > > P.S. - in answer to an earlier question asked of the group in general,
> yes, I
> > > have taken Latin. It was a required course (as I think it still should
> be,
> > > everywhere, as it once was). I did not attend a public high-school,
> however.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > __________________________________________________
> > > Do You Yahoo!?
> > > Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
> > > http://greetings.yahoo.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Reply to:
> > lgwalker_at_mts.net
> >
> >
>
>
M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
Shady Lea, Rhode Island
"Casta est quam nemo rogavit."
- Ovid
Received on Sat Jan 05 2002 - 07:34:32 GMT