Re: Selectors: editorial section 3

Adam Kuehn wrote:

> Although most authorities agree that the commas after "HTML" and "XML" 
> are optional, including them is grammatically correct and in this case 
> is probably the better practice.  On first encountering this sentence, a 
> reader may well interpret "in HTML element names" as a complete phrase 
> and only re-think that construction upon reaching the word "and".  Using 
> the comma following each brief introductory phrase prevents this from 
> happening.  (Incidentally, your proposed alternative is probably 
> incorrect, as well.  The semicolon should be a comma in your proposed 
> phrasing, according to most style guides.  One would use a semicolon 
> only if the conjunction were removed.)

Briefly, yes, but not for the reasons given; the real ambiguity
is that without the comma. "HTML elements names" may be mis-
interpreted as a noun phrase, and backtracking forced when the
"are" is reached rather than the "but".  The proposed semi-
colon is overkill, but one can see the justification -- there
are simply too many commas otherwise.  I would personally
cast

> For example, in HTML, element names are case-insensitive, but in XML, they are case-sensitive. 

as

For example, in HTML, element names are case-insensitive, whereas in XML 
they are case-sensitive.

Received on Saturday, 31 December 2005 16:06:43 UTC