Path: utzoo!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!shamash!nis!pnessutt
From: pnessutt@nis.mn.org (Robert A. Monio)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Elm 2.2 miscellany
Message-ID: <5204@nis.mn.org>
Date: 17 Apr 89 14:00:34 GMT
References: <5191@nis.mn.org> <5192@nis.mn.org> <5006@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> <5197@nis.mn.org> <5013@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Reply-To: pnessutt@nis.mn.org (Robert A. Monio)
Organization: National Information Services (Div. of NCS), Burnsville
Lines: 42

In article <5013@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> rob@PacBell.COM (Rob Bernardo) writes:
>Robert Monio:
>+Proper punctuation and grammar is important in any type of text
>+document.  This was not what I was commenting on.  My opinions
>+refer to the fact that someone decided to go overboard with the '.'
>+additions to ELM status messages.  I only asked for a reason.  I
>+didn't ask for a stupid response.

>Sorry, my intention was not at all to make light of your question. (I
>only removed the punctuation as a joke - separate from the content, which
>*was* serious.)

I figured as much.  Note the usage of the :-) after yours.

>You asked "Why overdo it?" and my response was more or less "Why do you
>consider use of punctuation 'overdoing it'?" Do you think punctuation
>has no place in user messages? If not, when should punctuation not be
>used in the way it is in normal writing?

Of course not.  I'm not referring to 'user' messages.  I'm referring
to the fact that someone put '.'s in each of the status messages from
Elm.  For example: 
               [Keeping 8 messages and deleting 2.]

My reference to overdoing the periods may be a bit extreme, but it's
just damn annoying.  As someone in another message noted, this usage
is uncommon.  It sticks out like a sore thumb.  
      
>I can't respond to "Why overdo it?" if I don't see something as 
>"overdone", because you're remark comes across like someone saying
>that the maid made the house "too clean" or that the painter's work
>was "too careful".  I'm asking these questions to understand where you're 
>coming from because we have different points of view.

Understood.  I hope my explanation above is enough to warrant a
decent answer.

-- 
 Robert A. Monio                     
 National Information Services, Inc.   "The most valuable commodity that I   
 pnessutt@nis.mn.org                    can think of is information."
 ..uunet!rosevax!nis!pnessutt                 -- Gordon Gecko, Wall Street