Re: tbl(1) minor issues

[Dave Kemper]

On 7/22/22, G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com> wrote:
> I disagree with this, because I find it awkward to put one complete
> sentence as a parenthetical inside another.  I believe a sentence should
> remain grammatical even if the parentheses are removed.

As a middle-ground opinion from another punctuation tyrant, I'm
generally OK with a parenthetical full sentence in the MIDDLE of a
sentence (provided it scans smoothly, but that's a basic requirement
of all writing).  But when a parenthetical sentence occurs right
before a sentence's terminal period, as what Alex is proposing in this
case, I invariably find this a little awkward, and want the
parenthetical moved outside the sentence.  A period followed by an
open parenthesis is a very strong signal to the reader that whatever
is in the coming parentheses relates to the previous sentence; there
is no need to defer the period to indicate this.

But I would propose a different solution to this case, because here
the parenthetical doesn't even apply to the whole sentence, but only
to the first half of it.  Thus I would change this:

They can be specified in any lettercase and must be separated by
commas, spaces, or tabs.  (AT&T tbl accepted only options with all
characters in the same lettercase.)

to:

They can be specified in any lettercase (AT&T tbl accepted only
options with all characters in the same lettercase) and must be
separated by commas, spaces, or tabs.

Branden has already objected to such a construction on the grounds
that it fails to parse when the parentheses are removed.  But saying a
sentence still needs to parse with arbitrary punctuation removed
strikes me as an absurdly high bar to clear: punctuation exists
precisely to affect the parsing of words.  And I can't see any reader
getting tripped up by the construction above.

However, even Branden's more stringent requirement can be met by
turning the parenthetical sentence into a subordinate clause:

They can be specified in any lettercase (unlike in AT&T tbl, which
accepted only options with all characters in the same lettercase) and
must be separated by commas, spaces, or tabs.

It's a couple words longer, but in my opinion more clearly structured,
because the parenthetical appears immediately after the phrase it's
modifying.