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Comment by Perenti | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of a "debate" I had with RMS. Back in '98 I was involved with the Gnu Documentation Project, which was about improving the often very out-of-date Gnu documentation.

RMS tends to use semi-colons where others use commas, with _MANY_ subordinate clauses. I suggested he use shorter sentences, and commas. His response:

"But I like semicolons"

That's when I realised that regardless of his bizarre brilliance, there was no way to discuss some issues with him. I still respect him, but he's a shocking writer.

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Maybe I'm just being overly pedantic about a simplified anecdote, but that's the moment that you decided some issues couldn't be discussed with him? That seems like a fairly innocuous response. Couldn't you have pushed back, rather than assuming that the issue was entirely unresolvable?

The debate ran for about 3 months. He refused to acknowledge the validity of style guides and grammar. I tried, but he was resolute that because _he_ likes semicolons, other people could easily read his long and rambling sentences.

No assumptions involved, except the one that RMS wanted people to be able to read and comprehend his writing. I'm not sure that he did though.

> RMS tends to use semi-colons where others use commas, with _MANY_ subordinate clauses.

There are grammatical rules to using semicolons and using them with a subordinate clause on one side is a definite error. I can't think of how that would be valid. (Maybe that's what you meant.)

Grammar rules need to be more descriptive than prescriptive. Some people like to introduce new styles of writing that would lead prescriptivists to scream "witch!!"; it's fun to watch prescriptivist meltdowns.

You are such the rebel - using semicolons ilicitly!

> Grammar rules need to be more descriptive than prescriptive.

The style guides - and dictionaries - are way ahead of you, and have long said that.

However, we do need some consistency in order to have clear meaning. Otherwise, you'll write it your new radical way, and others will understand it in the generally understood way.

You can create your own protocols and syntaxes for your computer, but interoperation can be tricky.

Right, so if you're going to be an innovator, make it clear, otherwise it's not the same language. For example I'm pretty sure that RMS is not completely opaque in his use of semicolons.

> so if you're going to be an innovator, make it clear, otherwise it's not the same language.

Agreed.

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