On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:24:42 -0400, Anton Sherwood <bronto@...>
wrote:

> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>> If a typesetter were to change one jot or tittle of copy, that
>> typesetter would never work for that publisher again.
>
> Heh. When my father wrote a book on computer programming thirty years
> ago, he had quite a struggle to keep period and comma outside the
> quotation marks; I seem to remember that persuading the editors of the
> necessity for this was easier than persuading the typesetters.

This reminds me of the monumental struggles a fellow associate editor* had
at Electronic Design magazine, around 1978, trying to get the typesetters
to place backslashes into his text. *Max Schindler -- very nice fellow

While there, I used a Royal typewriter (manual, monospacing of course)
with a remarkably-beautiful typeface. Unfortunately, I have long forgotten
its name, but probably could pick it from a specimen collection.

Apparently, most Americans (maybe including Canadians) are extremely
confused about which is a backslash and which is a forward slash. There
must be some significant number of instances of the likes of "2\3" for
"2/3"; iirc, the backslosh actually did have a special meaning in such a
context; it was a variant of division, possibly modular arithmetic.
(Modular arith.: Daytime given, if it's now 11:00, what time will it be
exactly four hours from now? The modulus is 12, in this case.) Btw, the
BBC always uses the expression "forward slash" when speaking URLs.

Just wondering: Is Roozbeh Pournader still subscribing?

My regards to all,

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
The curious hermit -- autodidact and polymath
Pretty evening sky show: Go see!
<http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/26aug_sunset.htm>