3 ms·

I'm the author-- I feel it's common enough to say "close tags" when you mean closing or ending a markup element. I'm surprised to see such a literal nitpick up

by thorax 17y ago

I'm the author-- I feel it's common enough to say "close tags" when you mean closing or ending a markup element. I'm surprised to see such a literal nitpick upvoted so much, but I can't disagree that you're correct technically. I'm just trying to share an odd/interesing position of Google's and not trying to write a deep analysis or anything.

Confusion 17y ago
It's common to say it that way, but that doesn't make it proper. As George Orwell argued in his 1946 essay 'Politics and the English language' (http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit): clarity of language is closely bound to clarity of thought. Everyone should be encouraged to write as clearly as possible, to avoid confusion and muddling of thoughts. Of course, the grandparent overstates his case and is unconstructive as a result. His fallacy is that he argues that someone must be an idiot, because they make a trivial error. Which overlooks the fact that trivial errors are made by experts all the time, exactly because it's a trivial point that doesn't have their attention. You wouldn't believe the silly errors PhD's fix in the papers of fellow PhD's.
inimino 17y ago
It's common enough for people not to know the difference between a tag and, well, any part of the syntax of HTML that is not a tag. That doesn't mean we should encourage this confusion. I see this frequently in technical channels where people have HTML questions but lack the vocabulary to express them or comprehend the answer. One of the very first things an HTML newbie must learn is the correct names for elements, tags and attributes, which usually means unlearning the incorrect use of 'tag'. Is this a nitpick? Perhaps if your subject had been something other than markup, or valid markup in particular, you'd be right. I think it's reasonable, though, when writing on a technical subject, to insist on correct usage of that subject's basic technical vocabulary.

by thorax 17y ago

Confusion 17y ago

It's common to say it that way, but that doesn't make it proper. As George Orwell argued in his 1946 essay 'Politics and the English language' (http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit): clarity of language is closely bound to clarity of thought. Everyone should be encouraged to write as clearly as possible, to avoid confusion and muddling of thoughts. Of course, the grandparent overstates his case and is unconstructive as a result. His fallacy is that he argues that someone must be an idiot, because they make a trivial error. Which overlooks the fact that trivial errors are made by experts all the time, exactly because it's a trivial point that doesn't have their attention. You wouldn't believe the silly errors PhD's fix in the papers of fellow PhD's.

inimino 17y ago

It's common enough for people not to know the difference between a tag and, well, any part of the syntax of HTML that is not a tag. That doesn't mean we should encourage this confusion. I see this frequently in technical channels where people have HTML questions but lack the vocabulary to express them or comprehend the answer. One of the very first things an HTML newbie must learn is the correct names for elements, tags and attributes, which usually means unlearning the incorrect use of 'tag'. Is this a nitpick? Perhaps if your subject had been something other than markup, or valid markup in particular, you'd be right. I think it's reasonable, though, when writing on a technical subject, to insist on correct usage of that subject's basic technical vocabulary.