RE: Ban the Semicolon?

[Marguerite Krupp <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com>]

The demise of the semicolon, at least in technical documentation, has been
prematurely reported. It is alive and well in all C programs, among other
places, so it lives on in our documentation examples.

I have personally enjoyed the role of the semicolon, particularly its role
in the genesis of the question mark, but that's another story.	

If Orwell went through a "period" of not using semicolons, it may have been
about the same time that he slipped into a comma.

The relevance to tech pubs is not only the semicolon's use in examples, but
also its use as a specialized tool in our tech writing toolkit. Sure, there
are other ways, but isn't it nice to have the right tool when the occasion
demands it?

Marguerite 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check it out! Get some cool freebies when you buy RoboHelp! You'll receive
SnagIt screen capture software and a 10% discount voucher for RoboHelp
Consulting. This special offers expires March 29, 2002.
www.ehelp.com/techwr

Have you looked at the new content on TECHWR-L lately?
See http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ and check it out.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.