OT: Punctuation (was RE: Division by Zero)

[Kenneth Brody]

Quoting Bruce Easton (Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:39:32 -0400):

> Jay R. Ashworth wrote Tuesday, June 19, 2007 4:36 PM:
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 19, 2007 at 03:39:58PM -0400, Bruce Easton wrote:
> > > Jeff Harrison wrote Tuesday, June 19, 2007 3:10 PM:
> > > [..]
> > > > missed it, but "thanks for responding".
> > > [..]
> > > >
> > >
> > > Didn't you mean:
> > >
> > > missed it, but "thanks for responding."
> >
> > No.  Jeff -- like me, most programmers, and almost all of Britain
> > for the last 30 years -- uses "rational punctuation", [..]
>
> Uh, oh - I must be showing my age, then. :)
>
> [..]
> > where if a period ends a
> > sentence, you put it at the end of the sentence.
>
> That doesn't sound right (as a blanket rule), although I do see
> your point below.
[...]

Consider the difference between:

    He said "you have been programming for over 30 years"?
and
    He said "you have been programming for over 30 years?"

While a period is less serious, "rational punctuation" doesn't have
hard and fast rules like "the period goes inside the quotes" as the
typical American student was taught.

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