Weibel,Stu [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] summarizes:
comma [,]
pro:
- natural seperator - people will use it whether
or not
it is the official delimiter
- widely used (and even recommended) now
con:
- occurs in formal schemas now
- occurs in names ordered by family name in
common
default encodings
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
[Jul,Erik]
Borrowing from American English usage (just so my orientation is
clear), commas are often used in conjunction with semicolons in a
series. In effect, the semicolon is "promoted" to the role of major
separator when multiple commas occur within logically separate
grammatical units, for example:
* single term (no separator)
term1
* series of terms, all equal (comma separator)
term1, term2, ..., termN
* series of terms, logical groupings (comma and semicolon
separator)
term1, term2; term3; term4, term5, ..., termN
Note: Term3, although a single term, is delimited by a
semicolon.
This slightly more complex structure may eliminate confusion
among separators and preserve logical groupings.
--Erik
Jul, Erik; [log in to unmask]
|