(This is, strictly speaking, off topic as it's only about writing style and unrelated to groff or even typesetting.)
On 8/16/21, Damian McGuckin <dami...@esi.com.au> wrote: > The British writing style leans more to text readability > and writing convenience by using relatively fewer punctuation marks. Writing convenience, sure, but I wouldn't characterize minimizing puctuation as increasing readability -- the logical conclusion of that is that the most readable paragraph is one that dispenses with all punctuation. Sure, some punctuation marks are discretionary, especially commas and hyphens, but most are important signposts for parsing text, and you downsize them away at the risk of ambiguity or outright change of meaning. (The classic example is the drastic change in meaning when one omits the comma from the sentence "Let's eat, grandma." This direct-address comma is on the wane in modern books from even reputable American publishers, a disturbing trend that can only presage a rise in cannibalism.) And the Brits may try to minimize their commas, but they sure do love their hyphens: the OED hyphenates numerous words that American dictionaries tend to close up: arrow-head, barrel-house, co-author, finger-breadth, fish-hook, kick-off, level-headed, mid-afternoon, non-fiction, stand-alone, take-off, trap-door, water-bed.
