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Re: [ddlm-group] Space as a list item separator

I am very sorry to hear that.  In my shop, dealing with this one change 
will involve 1-3 person-months of recoding to make commas optional and
to introduce warning messages when they are encountered and in redoing 
dictionaries and test cases.  What a pointless waste.  I hope this
group will complete its work in the near future, so we can have some
chance of having something stable to work against.

=====================================================
  Herbert J. Bernstein, Professor of Computer Science
    Dowling College, Kramer Science Center, KSC 121
         Idle Hour Blvd, Oakdale, NY, 11769

                  +1-631-244-3035
                  yaya@dowling.edu
=====================================================

On Wed, 2 Dec 2009, James Hester wrote:

> Counting up the votes so far on the list delimiter question I get:
> 
> Space and comma: David, Herbert
> Space only: Simon, Nick, James, Joe (?)
> Agnostic: Brian
> Unknown: John
> 
> It looks like the spaces have it, although I have perhaps over-interpreted
> Joe's reply.  
> 
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 3:57 AM, David Brown <idbrown@mcmaster.ca> wrote:
>       MY VOTE IS FOR 1 (SPACE AND COMMA) because commas are better
>       visually.  Not a strong argument and I would not give my vote a
>       large weighting.  I can live with 2 as well.
>
>       David
>
>       James Hester wrote:
> Dear CIF2 people: the time has come to vote on the list item
> separator issue.  Firstly: as far as I know, nobody is against
> space as a separator, so spaces will be possible list item
> separators.  Some may be against commas, so this vote is on
> whether or not to allow commas.
> 
> To summarise the arguments:
> 
> 1. In favour of both space and comma
>    - comma is used in some other non-CIF contexts as a list
> delimiter
> 
> 2. Against comma:
>    - A single type of separator makes the grammar simpler
>    - Space is used everywhere else in CIF as a separator
> (consistency)
>    - Comma can then be used in non-delimited strings
> 
> Space only: Nick, James (Nick is here)
> Comma and Space: ?
> 
> On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 5:30 PM, James Hester
> <jamesrhester@gmail.com> wrote:
>       More specifically, CIF1.1 excludes square brackets
>       as the first character in a non-delimited string.
>
>       On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 9:33 AM, James Hester
>       <jamesrhester@gmail.com> wrote:
>             Dear Herbert: as CIF 1.1 doesn't define
>             lists, I'm not sure why you suggest that
>             the example below is a valid tag.
>
>             On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 12:36 AM, Herbert
>             J. Bernstein
>             <yaya@bernstein-plus-sons.com> wrote:
>                   Sorry something got lost in
>                   the prior message.  It
>                   should have
>                   read:
>
>                         Dear Colleagues,
>
>                          Back to the
>                         question of
>                         commas.  If you
>                         accept the
>                         desirability of
>                         having a CIF
>                         1.5, commas in
>                         lists become
>                         very useful.
>                          Someone with
>                         a CIF 1.1 editor
>                         will be able to
>                         prepare a CIF
>                         1.5 file for
>                         many
>                         useful cases by
>                         doing all lists
>                         with commas and
>                         no embedded
>                         blanks
>                         as long as they
>                         can make their
>                         lists fit on
>                         single lines.
>                          In CIF 1.1
>
>                         [[1,2,3],[4,5,6],[7,8,9]]
>
>                         is a valid value
>                         for a tag, but
>
>                         [[1 2 3] [4 5 6]
>                         [7 8 9]]
> 
> is not.
> 
> 
> No, neither example is a valid CIF 1.1 tag.  CIF 1.1
> explicitly excludes brackets as the first character
> of a non-delimited string.
> 
>
>             Having the option of commas
>             in lists will help to smooth
>             the
>             transition for at least some
>             people.
> 
> 
> 
> --
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> 
> 
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> 
> 
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