[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home]
[By Thread]
[By Date]
RE: [xsl] starts-with on more than one item
Subject: RE: [xsl] starts-with on more than one item
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:40:18 -0400
|
At 09:11 AM 6/3/2008, it was written:
Ahem ....
One might equally say :
Shame on you! It's not called the "Harvard comma" for nothing...
The Wikipedia article is entitled Serial Comma and states it's also
known as Oxford Comma or Harvard Comma.
The name used is perhaps being determined by which side of the Atlantic
the speaker is not on.....
(or associated prejudices)
Unhelpfully (and markedly off-topic),
Richard.
The text is a debate about comma usage in English prose.
The subtext is some playful banter between myself, David Carlisle,
and Michael Kay, who have been writing to one another on this list
for going on ten years now.
They know (as many list readers may not) that they are British and I
am American, but also that I have read more than my share of British
prose, having received an advanced degree in the subject (albeit from
an American university). Accordingly, while I may sometimes be guilty
of defending and even using the Oxford/Harvard comma, this is
probably not due to my nationality. It turns up in British prose not
infrequently, especially before the 20th century; I probably get it
from Carlyle and Ruskin as much as from Emerson. If we were really
interested in the topic (as opposed to busy pulling each other's
chains), I might have pointed this out to David, who first called it
a trans-atlantic peversion (whatever he might mean by that). "An
archaic usage more commonly retained in America" would be a more
accurate description.
We all know (although, as an American, I hesitate to speak for my
British colleagues) that the thread is way off topic, and has
undoubtedly gone on too long.
Cheers,
Wendell
======================================================================
Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================
|
