4 ms·

are there really places that a comma, super-comma; or (parenthesis) dont work roughly as well? I find the em-dash mildly abhorrent, even before this all.

• mroche 7mo ago
  > super-comma This is the first time I've ever heard the character ";" referred to as such. It's always been "semi-colon" to me, is this a region/culture difference? I'm not saying you're wrong, I find it interesting.
  • basch 7mo ago
    same character, used differently? i call it a super comma when its separating a list with commas within the sets. so if i am listing colors like green, blue, red; foods like apple, orange, strawberry; and seasons like winter, summer, fall. it's one use case for an em-dash, because whatever you have inside it has commas in the phrase. square and rectangle situation. a supercomma is a subset of semicolon.
  • chasd00 7mo ago
    no it's always been semicolon, the "super-comma" comes from describing how to use it. "It's similar to a comma but like a super comma."
    • jjgreen 7mo ago
      Huh? I've always understood that the clause after the semicolon is peripheral; the meaning of the whole sentence does not change without it.
      • basch 7mo ago
        thats one use for it. supercomma is another.
  • xdennis 7mo ago
    > super-comma I would have assumed it's a synonym for apostrophe. super-comma <-> upper-comma, with super meaning upper, like in superscript.
    • basch 7mo ago
      I think of it as supersedes the comma in the order of operations. You work inward, or outward (depending which way you read the list.)
• junofan 7mo ago
  Yeah it’s for abrupt changes in thought. It’s used in literature. Maybe you prefer organized writing.
• randusername 7mo ago
  it's a cadence thing for me Em-dash matches how I speak and think-- frequently a halt, then push onto the digression stack, then pop-- so I use them like that. Em-dash matches how I speak and think (frequently a halt, then push onto the digression stack, then pop) so I use them like that. Em-dash matches how I speak and think, a halt, then push onto the digression stack, then pop, so I use them like that.
  • bubblewand 7mo ago
    I picked it up from Salinger. I find that if I can't eradicate parenthesis by some other means, or if it's more effort to do so than I want to spend, em-dashes usually replace them without doing any harm and aren't quite so ugly, aside from being useful in other cases. In particular, parenthesis at the end of a sentence are awful, while a single em-dash does a similar job much more neatly and looks totally natural.
  • cgriswald 7mo ago
    A poster commented that he read parenthetical remarks in an old-timey voice (I’d guess the trans-Atlantic accent). I love that idea. But for me they read almost as if you’re saying them under your breath (or a character is breaking the fourth wall and talking to the camera quietly). I read them but my brain assigns them less importance. Em-dashes keep everything on the same level of importance in my brain. Commas don’t feel as powerful. To be fair to the comma I’d probably do this: Em-dash matches how I speak and think: A halt, then push onto the digression stack, then pop. So I use them like that. Edit: I accidentally used an em-dash in the word em-dash. Interestingly HN didn’t consider changing the dash to be a change in my text so didn’t update it. I had to make a separate change and take that change out for my dash change to stick.
    • basch 7mo ago
      For me, a sequence of sentences, strung together by commas, is more in line with how I output thought, and better matches what I believe my speech pattern is.
    • CuriouslyC 7mo ago