Re: Change “~” to “!”

> Nah!
> ~ has meant "not" for far longer than ! has.

I don’t think flatly negating the experience of users is in our best
interest.

> I think !important in CSS a far better use of ! than in C etc., since
> at least the ! in CSS is closer to its real-life meaning. In real life
> ! doesn't mean 'not'.

Who’s “real life meaning” are we talking about here? Invisible XML is a
technology and anyone who comes into contact with it, no matter how easy
it is to use, is going to come into contact with other technologies as
well.

Their “real life” experience is going to be that “!true = false” and
that “3 != 5”. They’re also going to come across languages that use
other notations, like not() in XPath or “not” in Python (though see !=
in Python as well).

I think they are also very likely to have seen “~” used to mean
“approximately” I can’t think of a single context other than ixml where
“~” means not. I think I’ve seen it in math papers occasionally, though
as I said, I’m more familiar with ￢ (that’s a Unicode “fullwidth not
sign”, by the way) in that context.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

--
Norm Tovey-Walsh
Saxonica