From owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk Fri Sep 5 16:53:58 2003 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by dkuug.dk (8.12.8p1/8.9.2) id h85Erwtc030390 for sc22wg5-domo; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 16:53:58 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk) X-Authentication-Warning: ptah.dkuug.dk: majordom set sender to owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk using -f Received: from mailhub.dfrc.nasa.gov (mailhub.dfrc.nasa.gov [130.134.81.12]) by dkuug.dk (8.12.8p1/8.9.2) with ESMTP id h85ErqCp030384 for ; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 16:53:53 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from maine@altair.dfrc.nasa.gov) Received: from mail.dfrc.nasa.gov by mailhub.dfrc.nasa.gov with ESMTP for sc22wg5@dkuug.dk; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 07:50:30 -0700 Received: from altair.dfrc.nasa.gov ([130.134.20.211]) by mail.dfrc.nasa.gov (Post.Office MTA v3.5.3 release 223 ID# 0-71686U2500L200S0V35) with ESMTP id gov for ; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 07:53:37 -0700 Received: by altair.dfrc.nasa.gov (Postfix, from userid 201) id C85D135778; Fri, 5 Sep 2003 07:53:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Richard Maine MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <16216.41838.720094.298359@altair.dfrc.nasa.gov> Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 07:53:34 -0700 To: sc22wg5@dkuug.dk Subject: (SC22WG5.2976) Fiddling with paragraph numbers In-Reply-To: <200309051106.h85B6QgS028390@dkuug.dk> References: <200309051106.h85B6QgS028390@dkuug.dk> X-Mailer: VM 7.07 under 21.4 (patch 12) "Portable Code" XEmacs Lucid Sender: owner-sc22wg5@dkuug.dk Precedence: bulk Malcolm Cohen writes: > I don't like having both line numbers and paragraph numbers. Me neither. Van shows that we can, but just because we can doesn't mean we should. > In any case, we could already work that way if we wanted, while still using > the line numbers: just give the subclause number and (manually counted) > paragraph number within that. I've had quite a bit of trouble with manually counting paragraphs in the past. Works fine when you have nothing but plain old text. But it doesn't take long at all before you start wondering exactly what counts as a paragraph...and whether every reader will have the same algorithm. When you have bnf, does it count? And for how many paras if it is several bnf terms (including some multiple-line ones). Do constraints count as one paragraph each or as none at all or something else? If you have displayed material, how do you know whether the line after it counts as the start of a new paragraph or not? (There is extra vertical space in either case.) I have personally gotten confused by all of those questions. This usually drives me to much more long-winded explanations, at least when I've felt that I had to write out things that way instead of using page/line numbers. I've ended up saying things like "the 3rd paragraph after the numbered list in.." or "the 3rd paragraph after the constraints following Rxxx" (the later form was from before we had numbered constraints, which can slightly simplify it). I have generally *NOT* felt that paragraph number wihin a section was adequate description in many cases. It isn't the counting that is hard. I think I can still count as high as likeely to be necessary. It is the decision as to what counts as a paragraph and what doesn't. Having the paragraphs explicitly marked would help that. (Heck, it would help even if the marks weren't numbers.) The convention that you distinguish paragraphs by the extra space between them isn't good enough for this document. Fortunately, in reading for the technical content, you are not likely to have to consider whether that counted as a new paragraph or not. (Any cases where the paragraph division isn't clear and might cause confusion about the meaning should be reworded). In reading citations that reference paragraph numbers, you do have to consider it. -- Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience; Richard.Maine@nasa.gov | experience comes from bad judgment. | -- Mark Twain