tree-

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Okay: what is, or what should be, the standard tag for intrusive dashes? Dashing? Dashwood? A dashed shame?

November 9, 2008

mollusque commented on the word tree-

Dashtards?

Edit: or dashtardly.

November 9, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

I like dashtardly. Or how about balderdash?

November 9, 2008

dontcry commented on the word tree-

I vote for dashtardly.

November 9, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Thus further dashing the hopes of the others.

November 9, 2008

mollusque commented on the word tree-

How many of this kind of tag are there? I know of bracketeering, exclamaterial, slanticular, and semicoli.

November 9, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Slashing prices does the same job as 'slanticular'. Others I know of are pipelines, commarginal and colon cancer.

November 9, 2008

mollusque commented on the word tree-

Thanks, VanishedOne. I see you've collected them under meta. Anything for items ending in a period?

November 9, 2008

sionnach commented on the word tree-

Shuffles nervously in chair as the realization dawns that not only may one be judged for one's linguistic solecisms on the interwebs, but that others may even be using tags to construct some kind of hideous metaphysical slimetrail of one's cyberlapses.

Begins mental composition of letter to the president-elect suggesting time-consuming community service projects for cybernauts exhibiting signs and symptoms of OCSJTS*. Quits upon realizing that pretty much every Wordie member falls in this category.

(obsessive-compulsive slightly judgemental tagging syndrome)

November 9, 2008

frindley commented on the word tree-

The frindley typography nerd emerges bleary eyed from pedants corner and says: But nay, this is not a dash that you see! Rather it is a hyphen. Thus: -

Whereas an en-dash is thus: –

And an em-dash thus: —

@mollusque: I proffer "punkt" as a nice, brief tag for items ending with a period, aka full stop or full point, aka punkt in another part of the world.

November 9, 2008

bilby commented on the word tree-

Punkt rocks. How about hyphen-ate-it?

November 9, 2008

frindley commented on the word tree-

Oh yes!

November 9, 2008

mollusque commented on the word tree-

Dash it!

November 9, 2008

mollusque commented on the word tree-

Okay, punkt is in play; I've tagged a few.

How about hyphend?

November 9, 2008

mollusque commented on the word tree-

Another for the OCSJTS set: asterical.

November 9, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Fair enough; I just read a terminal hyphen as a dash by habit, given the way a hyphen is frequently used as an ersatz dash owing to keyboard limitations. U+002D is in fact officially known as a hyphen-minus, so maybe hyphen-plus or plus-hyphen? Edit: or hyphen miners?

November 9, 2008

pterodactyl commented on the word tree-

hyphalutin?

November 9, 2008

sarra commented on the word tree-

I am so puzzled by this conversation — I feel like I'm trying to see in half-light.

November 10, 2008

dontcry commented on the word tree-

A dash is like a whole note. Just hold it. When I write a dash, I usually am wanting to convey a short inhale, hold your breath, then - whatever comes after the dash. It gives a sense of, "wait for it..." then the release. I'm thinking dashes are more important for speaking text than for reading it. They are the unpresent director.

November 10, 2008

frindley commented on the word tree-

Frindley's typography tip of the day:

hyphen - whatever you usually do

en-dash (width of capital N)

MAC: OPTION and the "hyphen/underscore" key that sits between 0 and +/= in the top row.

WIN: ALT and (on numeric keypad) 0150

(MS Word on both platforms has a setting that will auto-correct space hyphen space to space en-dash space, ditto double hyphens with spaces either side --)

em-dash (width of capital M)

MAC: OPTION SHIFT and the hyphen/underscore key

WIN: ALT and 0151

(The em-dash when used as punctuation typically does not have spaces either side, the en-dash does. Ergo, Word will correct double hyphens with no spaces to an em-dash, e.g. a dash--to go becomes a dash—to go)

November 10, 2008

bilby commented on the word tree-

Whichbe has also used the tag dashingly.

November 10, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Fair enough. I've put a link here in the tag comments for passersby who have the same reaction as frindley.

Edit: by the way, I'm using a laptop, so even assuming I can remember 150 and 151 I can't use them.

November 10, 2008

plethora commented on the word tree-

Is there a function key on your laptop, VO? Often you can use the Fn to bring up a number pad.

November 10, 2008

asativum commented on the word tree-

I like the un-Teutonic brevity of punkt, but as I caught up on this dashing thread, I was silently hoping for periodical.

November 10, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Fn + Alt + numpad 0 brings up http://www.polarcloud.com/rikaichan#rcxdict in a new window under my Firefox install. I don't know why, but I'm not going to disable the browser extension that's causing it.

If I badly enough want a dash I open a new tab with Web Developer Toolbar and use Edit HTML with the appropriate character code (or, on Wordie, just stick the code into the comment box). In practice, however, I'm unlikely to want to open another tab, or to hold down two keys with one hand while entering a four-digit code with the other. So yes, I use the odd double-hyphen here and there; and yes, I also use / where �?� is strictly required. But if you know of any Firefox extensions that offer easy duplication of the Windows Character Map (annoyingly buried three submenus down from Start), I'll try them.

November 10, 2008

frindley commented on the word tree-

I'm not actually proposing anyone do this (I wouldn't, too much trouble) but, depending on the laptop, usually you have to hit a function key (Num-Lock on a MacBook) or Fn plus another key to engage the "keypad" option where J=1 K=2 and so on. Then you can use ALT plus whatever numerical codes you want. Once finished you have to toggle back off with the original function sequence. Remember, I'm not recommending it!

;-)

This Firefox extension appears to allow you to set up your own keyboard shortcuts for commonly used special characters. I've never tried it though and it doesn't look entirely elegant.

November 10, 2008

plethora commented on the word tree-

You're right, frindley. I have to hit num-lock and then hold the function key as I type to access my number pad. Fn + alt + 150 doesn't give me a dash, though: ☼

November 10, 2008

sarra commented on the word tree-

the Windows Character Map (annoyingly buried three submenus down from Start)

It is an irritation, yes. That's why I use Run > charmap!

And to add to frindley's guide: – –; — —

November 10, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

But then you have to type just to run the app! (Unless you have it already entered from the last time; but I use Start -> Run -> msconfig and others quite often.)

November 10, 2008

sarra commented on the word tree-

I find it quicker — no searching or waiting for menus to open. But you could always create a shortcut to it!

November 10, 2008

vanishedone commented on the word tree-

Too many of those and the shortcuts become clutter in their own right.

November 10, 2008

frindley commented on the word tree-

@plethora: don't go dropping the zero off the front. All these keypad codes for foreign and funny characters are four digits and most begin with zero. So you need: en 0150 and em 0151.

November 11, 2008

frindley commented on the word tree-

It's moments like these that make Macs look so very good.

November 11, 2008

pterodactyl commented on the word tree-

Frindley: amen!

November 11, 2008

pterodactyl commented on the word tree-

And, what, no love for hyphalutin?

November 11, 2008