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Bill Pragnell wrote:
> Commas are tricky... most native speakers aren't too sure where to put
> them. I know when they look wrong or right, and when there should be one
> when there isn't, but I'm not sure I could describe the rules.
There are strict rules, tho.
Put one before a conjunction joining independent clauses, but not one
joining a dependent clause to an independent clause. I.e., if you could
replace it with a period and take out the word after, it needs to be a
comma.
John went to the store, but Mary went swimming. << Right.
John went to the store but Mary went swimming. << Wrong.
John went to the store but didn't buy anything. << Right.
John went to the store, but didn't buy anything. << Wrong.
(When the sentence gets really long but has a comma, I at least tend to
get confused, as I'm instinctively looking for the second subject.)
Put one after an introductory prepositional phrase with multiple
prepositions in it:
In an emergency run away. << Right.
In case of emergency, run away. << Right.
(I think a comma in the first one is optional but not required.)
If you have a phrase that limits the preceding phrase, use "that"
without a comma. If you have a phrase that clarifies, use a comma and
"which".
My grandfather Fred is old. (Note I have two grandfathers.)
My father, Steve, is young.
The monsters that you can't kill should be avoided.
(Avoid only the monsters you can't kill,
kill the monsters you can kill.)
The greebles, which you kill with the pistol, are weak.
(The greebles are weak whether you kill them with the
pistol or not.)
Introductory adverbial clauses always get a comma, even if they're only
one word long. (These two instant sentences are rule one, btw. :-)
However, I liked the movie.
Not very helpfully, it was too long.
Put commas between elements of a list, obviously, especially if they are
more than one word.
I like peanut butter and jelly, cucumber and bacon, and mustard sandwiches.
There are two or three more that aren't coming to mind at the moment.
This is American English as taught by a British-native English teacher
who actually had to learn the information as rules, which was
tremendously helful for my nerd-brain..
> Just don't get me started on apostrophes :)
Angry Bob's Apostrophe Rules!
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
"That's pretty. Where's that?"
"It's the Age of Channelwood."
"We should go there on vacation some time."
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"scott" <sco### [at] laptop com> wrote in message
news:47fc9ba8$1@news.povray.org...
> The problem is, that then software dude doesn't go back and make
> everything nice and test it (he has other stuff to do), the software just
> gets left in this "bad" state. Repeat the situation above a few times and
> you end up with a big mess.
Same with websites IMO. ;)
~Steve~
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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:47fbd6d4@news.povray.org...
> I write too many commas, though.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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~Steve~ ;)
> --
> - Warp
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Darren New wrote:
> Put one before a conjunction joining independent clauses, but not one
> joining a dependent clause to an independent clause.
Good job. Get the comma wrong in the sentence giving the rule for where
to put the comma in the sentence.
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
"That's pretty. Where's that?"
"It's the Age of Channelwood."
"We should go there on vacation some time."
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>> The problem is, that then software dude doesn't go back and make
>> everything nice and test it (he has other stuff to do), the software just
>> gets left in this "bad" state. Repeat the situation above a few times and
>> you end up with a big mess.
>
> Same with websites IMO. ;)
Nah - nobody "designs" those in the first place! ;-)
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>> Well, people claim that Lisp is an [impure] functional language too,
>> and AFAIK Erlang is about as pure as Lisp is.
>
> It's functional in the sense that you only assign once to a variable.
> It's not functional in the sense that calling "read" on the same file
> twice (in any language) can give you different results. Erlang just has
> lots more of that latter kind of non-functionalism.
>
> But yeah, you have to pass the seed to the random number generator, and
> it gives you back your random number and a new seed to remember for
> later. :-)
Well, "functional" tends to mean two things: referencial transparency,
and first-class functions. Lisp certainly has the latter, and seems to
suggest [although not enforce] the former. As for Erlang... *shrug*
In fact, all of the actually "popular" so-called functional languages
are impure. But then, the most popular OOP language is C++, which is
hardly a "pure" OOP language either...
> How does Haskell handle things like the function for "the time right now"?
Sure. To the nearest picosecond, anyway. You can also measure CPU time
instead of wall time of you want. You'll need a monad, obviously. ;-)
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St. wrote:
>
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
>
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>
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Comma comma comma comma comma comelia...
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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47fcfa13$1@news.povray.org...
>>> The problem is, that then software dude doesn't go back and make
>>> everything nice and test it (he has other stuff to do), the software
>>> just gets left in this "bad" state. Repeat the situation above a few
>>> times and you end up with a big mess.
>>
>> Same with websites IMO. ;)
>
> Nah - nobody "designs" those in the first place! ;-)
Heh, well they try to design them and think that they're doing it good,
but *something* always crops up.
That's me, that is... ;)
I'll get there one day... One day... One day... ;)
~Steve~
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"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:47fcface$1@news.povray.org...
> St. wrote:
>
>>
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>>
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>>
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>
> Comma comma comma comma comma comelia...
LOL! That was funny Andrew! :)
(Now I can't get rid of the song from my head!) Grrr... ;)
~Steve~
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St. wrote:
> I'll get there one day... One day... One day... ;)
OK, I was expecting this sentence to contain the word "gadget". Damn it,
the 80s have ruined my brain! >_<
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