For what is is worth, the following is the author field of a record from a
Procite database:
Aldon, Earl F.; Gonzales Vicente, Carlos E.; Moir, William H, eds
The semicolon is used to delineate between authors, where the comma is
used within the names. Since the comma is used so much within the
contents of fields, another convention is needed to eliminate confusion.
The semicolon works for me.
Garry Forer
*******************************************
Garry Forger, MLS
Assistant Librarian
University of Arizona at Tucson
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520-621-8753
On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Weibel,Stu wrote:
>
> semicolon [;]
>
> pro:
> - less commonly found in atomic data
> - nearly as intuitive as the comma in common usage as a
> seperator
>
> con:
> - occasionally appears in data
>
> colon [:]
>
> arguments pretty much the same as for semicolon;
> slightly less common in data than above alternatives,
> but also slightly less intuitive for common usage.
>
> double semicolon (or comma) [,,] [;;] [::]
>
> pro:
> - unlikely to be encountered in data
>
> con:
> - may be mistaken for missing data placeholder?
> - parsing is slightly more complicated
> - not intuitive... no chance you'll get it right by
> accident
>
> vertical bar [|]
>
> pro:
> - unlikely to be encountered in data
>
> con:
> - not intuitive
>
> ? - does this character appear on keyboards everywhere?
>
> multiple delimiters: any of an approved set of characters can
> be used [, or ; or : or |]
>
> pro:
> - more chances to get it right
>
> con:
> - parsing slightly more complicated
>
>
|