FOM: Recommendation re exchanges

Vaughan Pratt pratt at cs.Stanford.EDU
Wed Jan 21 18:18:05 EST 1998


From: Feferman
>It would be helpful if quotations from others when making a response were
>kept to a minimum.  It would be even more helpful if there were no quotes
>within quotes.  I have seen some postings in which some passages start
>with
> >>>>
>It makes us bystanders dizzy.  Help us, please!

What I've been doing about the nested quotes problem is to rearrange
the quotes in chronological order, each preceded by "From: <sender>",
with just enough quotation to remind people of the context.  That way
the reader doesn't have to unscramble both order and nesting, there is
never more than one > per line (except in the above situation :).

Vaughan Pratt

(who would love to contribute his two cents worth to the latest round of
sets vs. categories, just a matter of finding the time.  In a sentence:
ZFC and toposes develop the same material but in the reverse order,
with the result that Occam's razor has entirely opposite effects on the
two subjects, to the immense confusion of each side of the debate about
the other side's motivations and mathematical sanity.)



More information about the FOM mailing list