User talk:Jorge Stolfi/DoW/SourceComplexity
You nailed it[edit]
And the dash war stuff is a hoot. My HS grammar book (Harbrace, quite good, better than Wiki stuff) doesn't even mention these typographical symbols when it goes over punctuation marks. Does not differentiate between en dash and hyphen and advises a double hyphen typewritered for a dash. And the en dash and hyphen look the same for people on PCs. (It's a Mac thing be into that stuff. And Mac is a minority machine.)
I think the worst thing about the inline refs in edit view is that even for very experienced Wiki-savvy editors, it is just painful to try to copyedit text like that. The paragraphs end up twice normal length (and remember we are looking a some smallish edit window and double scroll barring and the like).
Whole MOS talks is amazingly dominated by people who don't really write articles. They just specialize in MOS talk arguing...and fighting over format wars in the articles. Even the top FA writers just kind of pay 1/4 level respect to MOS and just kinda ignore the silliness without trying to stir the hornet's nest. I had Painted turtle go through FA and literally 7 changes back and forth of the US versus U.S. It was actually funny. I just let them roll through with their competing bots and change it every couple weeks. ;-)