Subject: Re: Punctuation

From: "seidensticker" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 13:55:42 -0800

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--- In lojban@y..., John Cowan <jcowan@r...> wrote:
> Invent Yourself wrote:
>=20
> > Getting jbofi'e to recognize weirder punctuation is trivial, simply run
> > the text through the most simple of search/replace functions.
> >=20
> > Which would you like, though? If we use "" for lu/li'u, what about
> > lo'u/lu'e and la'o gy.?
>=20
> A recommended practice is to place the punctuation mark in front of the
> cmavo, thus: (to, )toi, "lu, "li'u, "lo'u, "le'u, ?xu, !ba'e, etc. etc.
> In that way the punc mark need not be mapped to just one sumti.

I had been thinking along Tengwar lines of accent-like marks over the paren=
theses that would let the reader more easily find the corresponding closing=
mark to each opening mark. Or, some 2-character marks might be something =
like:
`( )=B4 (- -) (=AF =AF) (=B0 =B0)=20=20

....But perhaps this is too elaborate. John's recommended practice sounds =
like a good approach -- it's optional, any parser could simply ignore these=
punctuation marks, it doesn't require new characters, and it helps the rea=
der. IMO, this last part is not simply an aid to novices like me. Skilled=
writers in natural languages, too, use their more limited tools (such as p=
arentheses, dashes, commas, and careful sentence construction) to minimize =
the reader's mental effort.

Searching through the cmavo list for "end," it looks like there are a coupl=
e of dozen open/close grouping words. Which ones get which punctuation? O=
ne approach might be to use:
- quote for the quote wrappers lu", "li'u, lo'u", and "le'u (or, perhaps =
use the =AB/=BB marks: lu=AB, =BBli'u, etc.)
- parentheses for to( and )toi
- [square] and {curly} brackets for the most common remaining wrappers
- ...leaving </> for all the rest

As an experiment, I put the punctuation on the _inside_ of the cmavo instea=
d of on the left. Obviously, the solo ?xu and !ba'e don't have any inside.