latitude-longitude vs latitude/longitude

Subject: latitude-longitude vs latitude/longitude
From: "techwrl-list-only -at- doitall -dot- com" <techwrl-list-only -at- doitall -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 11:57:04 -0400


Heya,

I'm working on documentation that requires many references to latitude and
longitude coordinates. Although in theory I could consistently refer to
"latitude and longitude coordinates", we refer to them often, plus orally
people say it with no "and". The dominant style around here is to attempt to
write what people say in the form "latitude/longitude coordinates".

But I don't like the way the slash looks, especially in documents that
mention them VERY frequently. Also, it makes line wrapping weird since line
wrapping after a "/" looks ugly to me so it leaves ugly gaps sometimes when
it can barely not fit on a line in the document. A lose-lose situation.

Alternative: I've also seen it with a hyphen, such as "latitude-longitude
coordinates". But it's not as common. I think the hyphen version reads much
nicer. And it allows line wrapping between the two halves of the phrase seem
natural to my eyes. I like it. But I'll probably need to convince others.

I've done some Web searches and the "/" version seems more common, but I
haven't found an authoritative (or even semi-authoritative) document yet to
which I can refer.

1) Does *any* style guide or dictionary have an opinion on this?

2) In particular, are there ones that recommend something OTHER than "/"?

3) Is there any other rationale for "latitude-longitude coordinates" (or
some better non-"and" version) to win over "latitude/longitude coordinates"?

Thanks for any ideas you have.

-- JX


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