Re: Punctuation Inside Quotes

[Arthur Comings <atc -at- CORTE-MADERA -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM>]

> I'm really surprised that this is as much of an issue as I've found it to
> be.  I was always instructed to place the punctuation inside quotation marks
> or parentheses if it *belongs* with that text and outside if it belongs with
> the "big" text.  For example:

> Perform "command".
> He said, "I want to go home."
> Although he liked the painting (which was rather ordinary), someone else
> bought it for $600.
> The painting (I really didn't like it myself.) sold for $600.

> It's always made sense to me as a rule of thumb & I've never heard of anyone
> having confusion over reading it.  What's everyone else doing?

> Sally Marquigny                    Network Imaging Systems
> sallym -at- msmailhq -dot- netimage -dot- com       Herndon, VA
>  ----------
> Aahz notes:
> >Another common difference is typographical: most hackers avoid placing
> >punctuation inside quotes unless the phrase being quoted requires it.

> I like this convention.  My company's style guide requires that punctuation
> fall within quotes.  Sometimes it's just not possible to recast a sentence
> to avoid "command." when it would be clearer as "command".

=====================

In my experience, there's no way of generalizing about "most hackers"
that I've met, other than to observe that they don't care much about
consistency or readablity of text -- especially for the first-time
reader.

Having said that, the rule that Sally quotes has been a standard for
some time. It's slightly more flexible than the old "Everything goes
within quotes" rule, and it seems to fit the problem Aahz is worried
about.


Of course, if you use a special font for commands, the problem
disappears.



Arthur Comings

GeoQuest
Corte Madera, California
atc -at- corte-madera -dot- geoquest -dot- slb -dot- com