Small note, but I think there should be a comma after "For more information" in the large splash graphic.
Standard US English grammar requires 4 words in an introductory prepositional phrase before it gets a comma.
As for the icons, I spent some time recently with our Info.plist and updating the supported file formats in the wiki, and as far as I can tell, there is no such thing as a database template OTOH, some people might want a differentiated icon for Master documents. No rush to create a new icon; we can add it later if so, just a small update on my part
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Small note, but I think there should be a comma after "For more information" in the large splash graphic.
Standard US English grammar requires 4 words in an introductory prepositional phrase before it gets a comma.
What?! I've never heard of such a thing. Is this in Strunk & White? Hmm. "Elements of Style" seems to require the comma (Chap. 2, Rule 3):
Quote:
Similar in principle to the enclosing of parenthetic expressions between commas is the setting off by commas of phrases or dependent clauses preceding or following the main clause of a sentence.
I did find your four-word rule here. They give this example:
Quote:
Correct: Under the kitchen table the dog cowered.
(Single short, clear phrase. No comma needed.)
This couldn't look more incorrect to my eyes. That's just screaming for a comma (or a reformulation, as "The dog cowered under the kitchen table.")
This page says a comma is always required. This page says it's a matter of personal preference.
Guess ya learn something every day. Or most days. Some days anyway.
Hmm, I wasn't aware there was so much debate on the subject; my English teacher was very clear: short introductory prepositional phrases get no comma (or else you lose 10 points on your paper!), but "long" (4-word or more) ones do.
I happen to agree with you on both points about the dog under the table, though
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
It seems to me that we're creeping out from under the umbrella of American English grammar and into the world of 'house style' instead here.
For what it's worth, British English calls more strongly for commas than does American English (it's a post-Victorian 'minimising ambiguity' thing) but from a different angle, Magazine English calls for less commas than does Book English (the less punctuation, the better text will wrap within narrow columns - and in fact, careful kerning can exploit line-breaks in columns as a substitute for normal punctuation from the reader's perspective).
And then there's the great However debate - I was brought up in a world that deplored the use of 'However,' at the start of a sentence, and it still makes me cringe visibly to see that. A lot of the time, all this comes down to conditioning - I'm not entirely comfortable with 'For more information contact' without the comma, but I'm entirely uncomfortable with 'Under the kitchen table the dog' without a comma.
And for a bit more context, the following sentence is considered to be completely correct grammatically, but very bad English! The boy the girl the dog the baby tripped up bit scratched collapsed (see: The Articulate Mammal - An Introduction to Linguistics, by Jean Aitchison).
My tuppence-worth, then, is that punctuation serves several purposes: to minimise ambiguity of meaning; to indicate rhythm breaks for the reader (especially out loud); to be taken seriously as an erudite and fastidious writer by the academic public (who will, in any case, argue over what is 'correct')...
- padmavyuha
PS: the point I forgot to make in amongst all that waffle is that I think a splash screen comes under the heading of Banner/Signpost English, where I would expect less punctuation than in normal text, so I think it's fine as it stands commaless.
Last edited by yoxi on Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:28 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 481 Location: Great Britain
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:07 am Post subject:
What a wonderful debate. You've all brightened my day
I think yoxi has hit the nail on the head. Punctuation exists to remove ambiguity from sentences. I'm not concerned with American English vs. Oxford English. Good punctuation should be about semantics not syntax. In the splash image legal notice there is no way the sentence can be misinterpreted by the lack of a comma, therefore the comma is not necessary.
However, three cheers for the perfectionists and sticklers! I'm very pleased to find myself in such good company.
Joined: Oct 24, 2005 Posts: 561 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 3:54 am Post subject:
For further reading on the subject of commas, semi-colons and other punctuation, I can thoroughly recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. Both funny and educational.
Joined: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 481 Location: Great Britain
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject:
New icons and splash images complete! I've packaged it as a dmg with Photoshop source files included, distributed under the GNU General Public License. All files use the existing NeoOffice file names so manual installation is as simple as a Finder drag and drop.
Joined: Dec 08, 2005 Posts: 291 Location: Berlin, Germany
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject:
Here's a comparison of some of the really small (16x16) icons for text documents from different applications - I think (for the next edition) some of those small icons could gain from a little fine tuning. What do you think?
Great work. I like all of it very much.
1) What happened to the HTML Template icon? (there's no slot for it in the current .plist, but I'm doing some .plist work anyway--always more bugs--so it's easy for me to add it to my patch)
2) Can you fairly easily generate 16x16 and 32x32 .png files for the toolbar icons? If not, I'll find some way to do so, but I thought I'd check first....
Edit: I think I've found a nice freeware program that seems to be producing nice .pngs from the .icns files very easily....
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
Last edited by sardisson on Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:37 pm; edited 1 time in total
Here's a comparison of some of the really small (16x16) icons for text documents from different applications - I think (for the next edition) some of those small icons could gain from a little fine tuning. What do you think?
I think they're crisper than any of the other 16x16 icons, which is a good thing (says the guy whose icons people complained were too fuzzy at 16x16)
If you mean association-with-the-app type stuff, perhaps, although my initial feeling is that we'll make the connection pretty quickly as we start seeing the icons, especially once they're in the toolbars and open/save dialogues
Smokey _________________ "[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki
2) Can you fairly easily generate 16x16 and 32x32 .png files for the toolbar icons? If not, I'll find some way to do so, but I thought I'd check first....
New icons and splash images complete! I've packaged it as a dmg with Photoshop source files included, distributed under the GNU General Public License. All files use the existing NeoOffice file names so manual installation is as simple as a Finder drag and drop.
Everything that has a beginning also has an end...
Excellent news! Since you are several days ahead of schedule, I'll wait a few days before I merge them into the build so that if any last minute corrections or tweaking are needed, you can do them.
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OTOH, some people might want a differentiated icon for Master documents. No rush to create a new icon; we can add it later if so, just a small update on my part 
is that punctuation serves several purposes: to minimise ambiguity of meaning; to indicate rhythm breaks for the reader (especially out loud); to be taken seriously as an erudite and fastidious writer by the academic public (who will, in any case, argue over what is 'correct')...
