BlackBox Framework Center

Not sure how to word it, but two missing (and of marketing value ?) ideas seem to be:

1 - BlackBox is small and efficient, in direct contrast to much modern bloatware

2 - The family of languages is very much the Niklaus Wirth tradition.

Ivan, we were editing at the same time.

The first sentence should be an announcement in a more standardized form. Changed.

I also added a link to the change list.

The news should be first, the background comes later. Reordered.

General remark: This is not a tutorial on BlackBox or a paid advertisement or some prosa text.
It is a press release of some news. The news are that there is a new BB release.
Even if BlackBox is new to some reader, this is not the news we are spreading.
The advertisement must be "hidden" in the background information.

@Robert: small size is a dangerous marketing argument nowadays, unfortunately.
Many people don't take any download below 50MB serious. They associate small with
primitive, too simple, limited. We are not strong enough to change this misbelieve, I am afraid.
Efficiency is already mentioned.

I have added a comma before the "and" to all enumerations. As far as I know this is american style.
It could also be done in the british style but it should not be mixed inside the same text.

Overall, for me the press release looks fine now.

- Josef

Josef Templ wrote:I have added a comma before the "and" to all enumerations. As far as I know this is american style.
It could also be done in the british style but it should not be mixed inside the same text.

You are entering a hot debate here. It is known as the "Oxford comma", (eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma) and there are supporters and detractors on both sides of the Atlantic. One quote from Wikipedia I like is:

In her style guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss writes: "There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken."

Personally I use it, despite having been educated at Cambridge whose style guide is against it.

wiki wrote:Journalists typically do not use the serial comma

Press release for journalists, so it is petter to avoid it.

Ivan Denisov wrote:

wiki wrote:Journalists typically do not use the serial comma

Press release for journalists, so it is petter to avoid it.

> Wikipedia: Journalists typically do not use the serial comma, possibly for economy of space

Well, this press release is not part of a printed newspaper so I am not sure if this rule applies.

In general, for me both versions are OK but it should be used consistently (unless an exception is
needed for avoiding ambiguity, of course).

@Ivan: is the chair@... e-mail already working? Who gets it now?

- Josef

A comma before and grates on me. Maybe it is my English upbringing? Anyway, if I was speaking out loud I would normally pause on each comma. I wouldn't pause before an and.

One of my Father's day presents just recently was a book titled 'Between You & Me - Confessions of a Comma Queen'. The author is a New Yorker. Once I have read that I may have a different view on the topic

However, I hope that a less controversial edit is:

'...reflection it is unique...'

should be

'...reflection. It is unique ...'

serial comma removed.

> should be
> '...reflection. It is unique ...'

This is more controversial indeed.
It would create an incomplete first sentence, wouldn't it? Please check.

- Josef

Sorry - yes you are right. However, in my defence I think that the sentence is way too long. I lost track of what it was saying half way through.

cfbsoftware wrote:Sorry - yes you are right. However, in my defence I think that the sentence is way too long. I lost track of what it was saying half way through.

This is one of the main problem german speakers have when writing english texts.
They are using long and deeply nested sentences.

I have tried to simplify it. Please comment.
See the diffs at http://wiki.blackboxframework.org/index ... &oldid=380.

- Josef

Josef Templ wrote:@Ivan: is the chair@... e-mail already working? Who gets it now?

Working. Doug confirm that letters received well.