Dear Jim, John, and Jim,
I agree that the over-enthusiastic placement of hyphens is probably
simply naiveté on the part of the software writers. I will see if I
can find some time to write to the ones I use.
On the side issue of Bob, Bill, and Bubba, I once read that in legal
terms this can be an important issue.
It went something like this:
* If the will of Grandpappy Bertram (known as Berty) read 'divide
equally between Bob, Bill and Bubba' then his estate was divided so
that Bob got half and Bill an Bubba got the other half to share
equally between the two of them.
* If the will of Grandpappy Bertram read 'divide equally between Bob,
Bill, and Bubba' then his estate was divided equally between all three
of them.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the forthcoming book, Metrication Leaders Guide.
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
to subscribe.
On 2009/08/08, at 5:02 AM, James R. Frysinger wrote:
Jim,
John Steele gave a good answer.
English tends towards simplification of writing style over time.
There was a time that "cooperative" required (!) an "unlaut" over
the second "o" to show that a diphthong ("oo") was not intended. I
recall when one saw "catalogue" more often than "catalog". I still
use a comma before "and" and "or" in a series of equal parts ("Bob,
Bill, and Bubba").
My impression is that the "double adjective hyphen" is slowly going
away. The SI Brochure and NIST SP 811 demand that for metric values
in symbolic form ("10 mm bolt"), even when used as adjectives. The
world is still split on spelled out forms ("ten millimeter bolt" or
"ten-millimeter bolt").
Jim
Jim Elwell wrote:
My grammar checker keeps trying to get me to hyphenate a metric
unit of measure when used as an adjective (apparently seeing the
number and the unit as a compound adjective). I wrote:
"put all those resources into a 180 mm industrial panel-mount unit"
And it suggests
"put all those resources into a 180-mm industrial panel-mount unit"
I thought I was quite familiar with metric style, but I am not sure
about this one. Can anyone shed some light on it?
Thanks!
Jim
--
**********************
Jim Elwell
[email protected]
801-466-8770
www.qsicorp.com
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(C) 931.212.0267
(H) 931.657.3107
(F) 931.657.3108
