I used to think of commas as verbal pacing cues as well, but they have more in common with parentheses or semicolons in code. The rule I remember now is "Commas are for parsing, not rendering."
Commas do follow rules, they are just hard to explicitly lay out. Usually they are used to separate clauses. For example, in some cases you need to use a semicolon instead of a comma to avoid the “comma splice” (though outside of formal writing this comes off as pretentious).
If you use commas only to denote when you’d pause when speaking, your writing can come off as juvenile or uneducated. It’s not just a signaling thing. It is jarring to read a sentence with them misplaced.
I had never really thought about commas that way, but I can totally get why someone would want to use this style now. Thank you for taking the time to explain it!
Sure, but that’s not what the linked article discusses. It specifically states that commas are mandatory on each line. Not that the rule for commas is relaxed. And what I’m arguing is that requiring commas on each line is pushing the syntax in the wrong direction.
I'm using them as I would conversationally. Commas might be more appropriate but saying their placement doesn't make sense is silly. They're obvious pauses if I were saying g this aloud.
Well in my own language commas are entirely optional. They actually only exist for JSON compatibility (ie pasting JSON blobs into the language rather than transcribing the data). But I will concede that having a comma separated list on a single line does at least improve readability for some people. In that particular scenario we are drifting into the laws of diminishing returns and thus things become a lot more subjective.
However having a comma terminator when followed by a LF doesn’t. The whitespace is larger and more visible than the comma. In that scenario the comma doesn’t add enough visual distinction to add value to the syntax.
IMO there is no reason to have commas at all so this discussion is pointless.
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