231–240 of 260 posts
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You are correct. But it’s time for them to learn that a semicolon isn’t a danger to anyone.
K. It’s not that they’re a danger or anything. It’s that you write in a certain way to convey a certain tone and short, period punctuated, sentences is just how you convey anger. You can try to fight the river on this one but it’ll be tough.
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If you have properties with ridiculous names, that's a bigger problem. Autocomplete in code seems to mostly be papering over design smells that should be fixed.
> If you have properties with ridiculous names, that's a bigger problem. I have no control over third-party dependencies and how they name things.
I use them a lot to control the tone of what I write. Since periods can indicate a serious or angry tone[1], I often need some other way to indicate a separation between two complete sentences. For example: "It looks like you forgot to do X; that's needed to do Y." Using a period could be perceived as anger, but using a comma would make that sentence a comma splice. [1] https://youtu.be/fS4X1JfX6_Q?t=3m3s
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That's nice to hear: but do you often see the colon used that way?
Colon isn't a type of pause; at least, I only ever use it to introduce lists. I don't use it for timing or tonality. This discussion makes it painfully clear to me that I over-punctuate. I mean, I knew I leant more towards elaborate sentence-construction than is fashionable; I've never liked txt-speak, and my thumbs are too fat and flabby for operating miniature virtual keyboards. I try to write literate emails. That…
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That's nice to hear: but do you often see the colon used that way?
Colon isn't a type of pause; at least, I only ever use it to introduce lists. I don't use it for timing or tonality. This discussion makes it painfully clear to me that I over-punctuate. I mean, I knew I leant more towards elaborate sentence-construction than is fashionable; I've never liked txt-speak, and my thumbs are too fat and flabby for operating miniature virtual keyboards. I try to write literate emails. That…
It also is a type of vocal intention. Are you acquainted with John Cleese playing the "Hungarian gentleman with phrase book" in the Monty Python sketch? «I will not buy this record [mounting pause, then release] it is scratched». The first part is preliminary, incomplete, it requires the second, expressed as a release after the mounting premise: the sentence is pronounced as having a colon (I cannot check the exact sample right now - that is how I remember it).
You can imagine the difference if it were pronounced as a dash, as a more emotionally neutral interpretation of the sentence, not stressing the implications of "the record being scratched", could bring. With colon you make the first part an incomplete premise that depends on the second part to finally gain meaning or informational value or completeness, reaching to conclusions; with dash with the second part you provide the detail that enrich the content of the first part. As a vocal intention, the musicality of the syllables would change (e.g., in «it is scratched», high-high-low vs. low-low-high), and the pause would become more of a mid-air jump suspension. (Unfortunately I do not have other examples to provide on the spot).
There can be correspondence between natural vocal intentions and punctuation - as is understandable, since punctuation very probably mimics the communicational relations implied in the acting of speech, and both are a consequence of the organization of thought.
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They’re called “em dashes”, and they look like this: — You can find a Real, Genuine Em Dash™ at https://emda.sh , or insert one using ‘C-k - M’ in Vim or ‘Compose - - -’ on Linux — not sure about other platforms.
Thanks— I didn't realize there was an actual character for them. Though IIRC MSWord would sometimes auto format them into that single extended dash appearance.
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Because language evolves. Today essentially nobody uses a semicolon in conversational and casual writing. For the average person, using a semicolon is an affectation like wearing a fedora. Some people look good doing it but most don’t.
I use semi-colons in coversational writing. Also, it so happens that I wear a fedora. It's not an affectation, it's just a felt hat. My natural scalp insulation started to fall out a decade or so ago, so I started wearing beanies. But now I feel much more at home under a fedora - apart from anything else, the hat works as a sort of miniature umbrella.
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> If you have properties with ridiculous names, that's a bigger problem. I have no control over third-party dependencies and how they name things.
I tend to solve that by wrapping inane APIs. At most I deal with ridiculous names and other API-brokenness once.
That is just another layer of abstraction which leads to even more confusion.
These abstractions can be taken to the extreme in things like Java, that's how you end up with a class named "InternalFrameInternalFrameTitlePaneInternalFrameTitlePaneMaximizeButtonWindowNotFocusedState".
If you wrap that in a new interface "IFIFTPIFTPMBWNFS" or even "crazyFrameStuff" (ridiculous enough), now you have to figure out what that actually is while debugging.
If one just comes to terms with the fact that Intellisense (and showing the method signatures while implementing) is extremely helpful even to very senior developers, life can be much easier.
It's not cheating.