🚀 go-pugleaf

Barbara Bailey wrote:
> On 15 Dec 2006 12:52:03 -0800, "Peter T. Daniels"
> <grammatim@verizon.net> wrote:
>
> >
> >Barbara Bailey wrote:
> >> On 15 Dec 2006 08:31:21 -0800, "Prisoner at War"
> >> <prisoner_at_war@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> >
> >> >Flying Tortoise wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> 95 in 100 .... or .... ninety-five in a hundred, never mix 'em!
> >> >
> >> >Well, I think the rule is that if spelling it out gets more
> >> >"complicated" than writing the numerals, then write the numeral (and
> >> >vice-versa).  Thus, you could wind up mixing 'em in a sentence like
> >> >"269 in a billion"....
> >> >
> >> >> Question marks should be placed inside the quotation marks only if the
> >> >> material in quotes is a question. If the quote forms part of a question
> >> >> but is not the question, then the punctuation goes outside as logic
> >> >> dictates. Punctuation is supposed to help you read what the author
> >> >> intends, after all!
> >> >
> >> >I agree.  But the whole point of tucking things, including the period
> >> >(for example, you're quoting a phrase, not the whole sentence, but you
> >> >yourself are done with your sentence), within a quote is that it looks
> >> >nice.  Hate to be inconsistent, even if logic demands it!
> >> >
> >> >And what do you do to show that you're quoting a quote?  Like, use
> >> >"double" quotations marks (use them twice)?
> >>
> >> I was taught that nested quotes get alternating double and single
> >> quotation marks with an added space between then where they run up
> >> into each other and always starting with double quotes.
> >> Thusly::
> >> He said, "I don't remember."
> >> She told me, "He said, 'I don't remember.' "
> >> Joe said, "She told me 'He said, "I don't remember." ' " ad infinitum.
> >
> >That "extra space" would refer only to typewriting, and in fact I never
> >encountered that instruction. In word processing, with variable-width
> >fonts, the typesetter should insert a "thin space" between two adjacent
> >quotation marks. Unfortunately, in MSWord the smallest space you can
> >get is "1/4 em," which is much too big -- and which, moreover, is
> >interpreted as a word-space, so it will happily divide lines between
> >them!
> >
> >> I was also taught that parentheses and square brackets were nested the
> >> same way, always starting with parentheses. Of course, that was back
> >> when typewriters were high-tech, and only specialty keyboards had
> >> curly brackets on them.
> >
> >Your typewriter had square brackets??
>
> The one I learned on at home did. It was my mother's and already an
> old one even in the late 60's. I think that it dated back into the
> 40's, and it may have had a specialty keyboard since as I recall, she
> got it from the drafting department of the company that she worked for
> when they bought newer ones. It's possible, since I can see the need
> for square brackets in typing up specs and bids for the machinery they
> designed and made.  I don't remember whether the ones at school did or
> not; that would have been the early 70's.

Selectrics, and some earlier IBM typewriters that had 92 rather than 88
characters, had square brackets, but before then, linguists (who use
them to enclose phonetic transcriptions) typed them with
slash-backspace-underscore-up two clicks-underscore-down two clicks.
You can see them throughout the typed publications that were very
common in the olden days.