Most useless punctuation mark.

[bunglehead]

I don't know about any of you peeps on this board, but man do I hate the semicolon. I mean WTF?? What's the point!?

It's fukkin stupid, and I hate IT!!!

 

Anybody else have a least favorite punctuation mark?

If nobody likes this topic, please let's discuss why the fuck WE HAVE NOT CAPTURED BIN LADEN. That goat fuck shithead. He sucks.

[badvoodoo]

Without the semicolon, sarcasm would be impossible on the internet

[assmonkey]

The semicolon is a wonderful tool for writers; You must be a retard for not seeing its value.

 

- a s s m n k e y

[bunglehead]

Response:

 

I see your point.

"The internet is a glimpse of how rude people will be in the future"

[lummox]

[klenke]

I actually use the semicolon quite a bit; it has its uses.

I'm impartial to this thing: | (called a pippit or something?). It's good for making lude symbols like this ( )|( ) but what else?

 

Bin Laden is definitely a horse's ( )( ).

[bunglehead]

I actually use the semicolon quite a bit; it has its uses.

I'm impartial to this thing: | (called a pippit or something?). It's good for making lude symbols like this ( )|( ) but what else?

 

Bin Laden is definitely a horse's ( )( ).

 

See, this is what I don't get about the semicolon. That first sentence with the semicolon could just as easily be two sentences. No? Is it the grammatical equivalent of a pause? As I understand it, that's what a comma is for. Right?

[assmonkey]

"You use it to connect two independent clauses together into one sentence, and you use it as a super-comma."

 

http://msms.essortment.com/semicolon_rcnr.htm

[badvoodoo]

I only use the | for coding. I wasn't aware it had any uses in english prose.

 

The most useless puntuation for me: ` (reverse apostraphe) Who uses this thing??

[slothrop]

I'm a programmer, so I make use of every punctuation mark on a daily basis. I hate them all, but especially ` ~ and \

 

The ` (backtick) is used in UNIX shell scripting.

Edited May 7, 2004 by slothrop

[bunglehead]

Oooh, a SUPER COMMA.

 

I want to be that superhero.

"A better world through BETTER PUNCUATION!!"

[cracked]

I'm a programmer, so I make use of every punctuation mark on a daily basis. I hate them all, but especially ` ~ and \

 

The ` (backtick) is used in UNIX shell scripting.

If you use TEX you will become intimately familiar with \.

 

What's wrong with ~? I think it's cool. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[cracked]

"A better world through BETTER PUNCUATION!!"

Might want to work on spelling, too, chief.

[klenke]

From the back of my big dic (Random House):

Use of semicolon:

1. To separate closely or implicity related independent clauses not joined by a conjuction. This is how assmonkey and I used it. It is more succinct than splitting into two sentences where the relationship might be lost on the reader. A conjuntion is a word like 'and' or 'but.'

 

2. To separate independent clauses that are joined by such conjunctive adverbs as hence, however, therefore, and thus.

 

3. To separate long or possibly ambiguous items in a series--especially when the [individual] items already include commas. This is a good time to use them. I use them in this case a lot (like #3 in this list)

 

4. To separate elements that are closely related but cannot be joined unambiguously with a comma. E.g., "Poverty is unbearable; luxury is sufferable."

 

5. To precede a word, phrase, or abbreviation that introduces explanatory information or an offered example, as before i.e., e.g., or that is. A comma may sometimes be used instead of a semicolon. E.g., "On the advice of her broker, after much deliberation, she chose to invest in major industries; i.e., steel, automobiles, and oil." You can see in this last case how a semicolon clearly sets out the list where as a comma would be awkward.

 

¿

 

[slothrop]

Despite being all cool and squiggly, the tilde (~) is part of the Perl pattern-matching operator, so it usually precedes an unholy mess of slashes, letters, and assorted punctuation that often takes way too long to debug.

[bunglehead]

Rock ON Klenk! THAT'S what I was looking for.

 

I mean obviously I don't have a dictionary, I can't even spell puncuation.

[cracked]

Despite being all cool and squiggly, the tilde (~) is part of the Perl pattern-matching operator, so it usually precedes an unholy mess of slashes, letters, and assorted punctuation that often takes way too long to debug.

I always thought that computer nerds were way into that kinda stuff....

[Gary_Yngve]

I'm a programmer, so I make use of every punctuation mark on a daily basis. I hate them all, but especially ` ~ and \

 

The ` (backtick) is used in UNIX shell scripting.

 

I especially hate the \ because half the time you need \\.

[marylou]

Ok, I'm tired of geekspeak on tildes and tics.

 

Most overused word in the language, hands-down, no second place:

 

AMAZING

 

used so much it's completely meaningless....

[cracked]

I thought that the most overused word is 'extreme'. WTF, mate?

[lummox]

<*)))><

<*)))><

<*)))><

<*)))><

[Squid]

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

 

 

we need more

&

&

&

[iain]

One really overused word is "really".

 

if ($_ =~ /extremo/ig) { print 'LOL' }

[Dru]

the tilde ~ means "about"

 

How hard is it.... oh ~5.5

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

If you try to use a comma in place of a semicolon, you get the dreaded comma splice. This is the horrific condition of two wholly independent clauses, free and perfectly capable of standing on their own, separated by a flimsy comma. If, however, you still find the semicolon too loathsome to use, you may use a conjunction (?), such as: for, and, nor, but, or, so, yet (these can be remembered by the useful acronym FANBOYS -- thanks Mr. McBain!); or simply split the beast into two separate sentences, like a linguistic tapeworm or something.

 

Solid!