logoalt Hacker News

That Disgraceful, Disreputable, (Wonderful) Form of Punctuation: The Parenthesis

17 pointsby pseudolustoday at 1:22 AM3 commentsview on HN

Comments

oskatoday at 3:08 AM

I don't like the two examples of parenthesis used in the title & subtitle of this piece, where they put wonderful and perfect in parentheses before a noun phrase.

Putting adjectives in parentheses before a noun (phrase) is, yes, a useful device but those adjectives should usually be words that give more (but not necessary) information, rather than purely subjective qualifiers such as the two that the author uses. I know they're probably being a bit tongue in cheek but it still grates a little that these were the two examples they led with.

pfdietztoday at 4:06 AM

And not a single mention of Lisp? Tsk.

sudo_cowsaytoday at 2:50 AM

I don't know why but I seem to use more parenthesis (even if I should be using commas).